THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


MAKCUS  T.  C.  GOULD  AT  FOKTY 
(FKUM  AN  OIL  PAINTING) 


JMarcus  T.  C.  Gould, 


By  Charles  Currier  JBeale, 


Reprinted  from 
The  Phonographic  Magazine  and  National  Shorthand 

Reporter, 
Cincinnati,  Ohio,  1904. 


The  following  biographical  sketch  was  read 
at  the  Fifth  Annual  Convention  of  the  Na- 
tional Shorthand  Reporters'  Association,  held 
in  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  in  August,  1903,  and 
was  printed  in  full  in  the  Phonographic  Mag- 
azine and  National  Shorthand  Reporter,  from 
which  the  present  edition  of  100  copies  is  re- 
printed with  several  additional  illustrations. 


Copyright,  1904, 
The  Phonographic  Institute  Company. 


Z  4 

£7563 


T 


Marcus  T.  C.  Gould. 


"*HERE  are  those  who  dispute  the  title  of  shorthand 
reporting  to  be  clast  among  the  true  professions ; 
and  there  have  been  many  arguments  advanced 
pro  and  con  ;  but  to  me  there  is  a  most  encouraging  sign 
of  progress  toward  the  point  where  such  denial  and  op- 
position shall  cease,  and  the  general  public  shall  accept 
us   as  entitled  to  that  distinction  from  the  man  with 
uj          the  hoe  or  the  man  with  the  hod  or  even  from  the  man 
(or  more  often  the  woman)  who  taps  off   "  Dear  sir  : 
Yours  of  recent  date  at  hand  and  contents  noted,"  on 
^          the  trusty  typewriter ;  and  that  sign  of  progress  is  the 
very  noticeably  increast  pride  in  our  calling,  as  mani- 
fested by  these  yearly  gatherings  of  reporters  from  dif- 
erent  sections  of  the  country.     Aside  from  anything 
which  is  or  may  be  accomplisht  in  the  strictly  business 
j,,         matters  of  these  conventions  and  our  association  work, 
^          I  believe  there  is  ample  reason   for  these  annual  as- 
m          semblages  in  the  broadened  outlook  and  the  increast 
fraternal  spirit  which  are  thus  engendered.     We  depart 
*          to  our  homes  feeling  that  we  have  met  men  and  women 
eminent  in  our  profession,  whom  it  is  a  privilege  and 
pleasure  to  know,  and  we  begin  to  feel  that  pride  in 
our  work  and  its  exponents  that  must  permeate  any 
-J         class  of  educated  workers  before  it  can  be  fairly  rankt 

among  the  learned  professions. 

gj  Indeed  a  profession  without  a  history  and  literature 

would  be  almost  an  impossibility,  and  it  is  a  reason  for 


Marcus  T.  C.  Gould. 


congratulation,  I  believe,  that  there  has  been  of  late  a 
more  general  interest  in  such  matters  on  the  part  of 
reporters  and  shorthand  writers.  And  I  am  sure  we 
are  inculcating  a  better  knowledge  of  what  our  profes- 
sion really  is  when  we  acquaint  the  public  with  the 
character  and  worth  and  achievements  of  those  men 
eminent  alike  in  our  profession  and  for  their  other  at- 
tainments, to  whom  we  are  proud  to  look  back  as  the 
founders  of  shorthand  reporting  in  this  country. 

On  Saturday  next  this  association  honors  itself  in 
extending  its  tribute  of  respect  to  the  memory  of 
Thomas  Lloyd,  who  has  been  well  styled  the  "  Father 
of  American  Shorthand  Reporting,"  while  here  in 
Cincinnati  the  shorthand  writers  of  America  are  offer- 
ing their  token  of  affectionate  esteem  to  him  who  shares 
the  greatest  name  in  modern  shorthand  history,  and 
who  has  for  fifty  years  held  a  pre-eminent  place  in  our 
ranks,  not  alone  because  of  the  name  he  bears  but 
because  he  has  worthily  upheld  and  been  the  foremost 
exponent  in  this  country  of  the  ideas  and  reforms 
which  his  venerated  brother  introduced  in  England, 
with  his  hearty  sympathy  and  co-operation,  sixty-seven 
years  ago.  Indeed,  Cincinnati  may  well  be  termed  the 
Mecca  of  American  stenographers,  and  to  use  a  per- 
haps pardonable  paraphrase,  where  sits  Benn  Pitman, 
there  is  the  head  of  the  table,  and  to  him  we  all  yield 
our  respect  and  veneration. 

A  full  century  and  parts  of  two  more  lie  between 
Thomas  Lloyd,  beginning  his  reporterial  career  in  1785. 
and  Benn  Pitman,  eighty  years  young,  like  the  genial 
Autocrat  of  the  Breakfast  Table,  and  still  full  of  enthu- 
siasm for  shorthand  at  the  beginning  of  the  twentieth 
century,  yet  the  shorthand  career  of  just  one  man  spans 
the  gap  between  the  two  and  forms  the  connecting  link 
in  a  great  American  triumvirate  of  shorthand  reporters. 
And  it  is  of  this  man,  who,  taking  up  the  work  of 


Marcus  T.  C.  Gould. 


Thomas  Lloyd,  became,  like  him,  the  foremost  steno- 
graphic reporter  of  his  time,  and  like  Benn  Pitman, 
was  also  the  leading  and  most  voluminous  shorthand 
author  of  his  day,  and  who  did  not  lay  down  his  facile 
pen  until  long  after  Mr.  Pitman  had  firmly  establisht  in 
America  the  only  successful  rival  to  the  hitherto  victo- 
rious system  of  Samuel  Taylor, — it  is  of  this  great  re- 
porter, author,  and  teacher,  towering  head  and  shoulders 
above  his  fellows,  yet  already,  alas !  almost  forgotten  by 
his  successors,  that  I  am  privileged  to  tell  you  to-day — 
a  man  great  in  intellect,  in  achievements,  in  body,  and 
in  name, — Marcus  Tullius  Cicero  Gould. 

If  there  is  anything  in  the  theory  that  one' s  life  is 
influenced  or  one's  tendencies  and  occupation  shaped 
by  the  name  bestowed  by  one's  fond  parents  at  the 
baptismal  font,  it  is  signally  borne  out  in  the  case  of 
Marcus  Tullius  Cicero  Gould ;  for  by  many  investi- 
gators Marcus  Tullius  Cicero  is  credited  with  being  one 
of  the  earliest  patrons  of  our  art,  and  to  Marcus  Tul- 
lius Tiro,  his  namesake,  freedman,  and  friend,  we  are 
said  to  owe,  if  not  the  invention,  at  least  the  improve- 
ment and  popularization  of  that  curious  Roman  method 
of  shorthand  once  so  commonly  used,  and  to  which  in 
his  honor  has  been  given  the  name  of  "Tironian 
Notes."  It  was,  then,  a  happy  augury  that  to  him 
who  was  to  be  the  foremost  American  stenographer  of 
his  time,  should  be  given  the  name  made  famous  by  a 
great  Roman  orator  and  a  great  Roman  shorthand 
author  and  writer. 

Yet  it  is  a  curious  commentary  on  the  ingratitude  or 
indifference  of  our  craft  in  modern  times,  that  while  we 
are  almost  as  familiar,  or  at  least  have  ample  oppor- 
tunity to  be,  with  the  life  and  works  of  Tiro,  as  we  are 
with  many  a  latter-day  notable  in  literature  or  science, 
so  far  as  I  can  learn  there  has  never  been  publisht  any 
memoir  or  biographical  sketch  of  a  shorthand  author  so 


Marcus  T.  C.  Gould. 


prolific  that  his  manual  ran  through  some  fifteen  edi- 
tions from  1823  to  1845,  the  final  edition  appearing  as 
recently  as  1860  ;  of  a  reporter  who  for  more  than  a 
score  of  years  was  almost  constantly  employed  in  the 
practical  pursuit  of  his  calling,  whose  publisht  reports 
of  trials,  debates,  conventions,  etc. ,  would  form  a  con- 
siderable library  in  themselves  ;  of  a  teacher  so  suc- 
cessful that  he  held  classes  of  pupils  sometimes  num- 
bering into  the  hundreds  and  often  under  the  sanction 
and  approval,  if  not  under  the  direct  auspices,  of  some 
of  the  prominent  colleges  of  the  land ;  of  a  publisher 
who  in  his  particular  line  of  "Friends'"  or  Quaker 
books  and  periodicals,  must  have  been  widely  known 
wherever  the  disciples  of  George  Fox  dwelt ;  of  an  in- 
ventor whose  patent  on  a  fountain  pen  was  granted 
more  than  seventy  years  ago,  when  Andrew  Jackson 
ruled  this  country,  and  whose  "Index  Rerum"  and 
' '  Common  Place  Books ' '  might  well  be  imitated  profit- 
ably at  the  present  day  ;  of  a  "boomer"  and  promoter 
whose  buoyant  fancy  pictured  a  new  metropolis  in  west- 
ern Pennsylvania,  and  whose  glowing  encomiums 
thereof  outrival  any  of  our  great  modern  real  estate 
operators ;  of  a  man,  in  short,  who  must  have  been  a 
potent  factor  in  the  educational  and  commercial  affairs 
of  his  day,  and  a  credit  to  the  profession  of  shorthand 
writing. 

He  was  a  follower  of  Samuel  Taylor,  whose  system 
he  adapted  to  the  needs  of  American  reporters,  but  like 
Taylor  himself,  who,  dying,  left  the  greatest  name  in 
shorthand  history,  except  that  of  Isaac  Pitman — and 
left  nothing  else  beyond  a  few  shadowy  reminiscences 
for  shorthand  historians  to  work  on — Gould,  as  a  man, 
has  been  almost  unnoticed  by  historians  of  the  art,  by 
whom  little  or  nothing  has  been  known  concerning  his 
life  and  personality,  and  it  is  only  by  long  and  diligent 
search  and  investigation  in  many  directions,  much  of  it 


THE 

ANALYTIC  GUIDE, 

AND 

AUTHENTIC  KEY 

TO   THE 


OP 


'By  which  the  Language  of  a   Public  Speaker  may  be-  recorded,  in  a 
style  at  once  beautiful  and  legible. 

BEING 

A  compilation  from  the  latest  European  and  American  publication*, 

with  Sundry  improvements,  adapted  to  the  present  State  of 

Literature  in  the  United  States. 


BY  M.  T.  C.  GOULD, 

Stenographer. 


JILBAMY? 
PRINTED  BY  PACKARD  Sf  VAN  BENTHUTSEV 


1823. 

TITLE-PAGE  OF  FIRST  EDITION. 

From  copy  in  American  Antiquarian  Society  library, 
Worcester,  Mass. 


8          Marcus  T.  C.  Gould. 


fruitless  and  most  of  it  productive  of  not  more  than  a 
"  scrap"  of  information  at  a  time,  that  I  have  been 
able  to  prepare  the  following  somewhat  meager,  but  I 
hope  not  unworthy,  sketch  of  this  eminent  stenographer. 

The  name  of  M.  T.  C.  Gould  does  not  appear  in  any 
dictionary  of  biography  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  and  even 
in  Allibone's  great  work  on  English  and  American 
authors,  he  is  dismist  with  a  mere  notice  of  one  of 
his  least  important  works,  "  The  Stenographic  Re- 
porter, Washington,  1841."  The  dates  of  his  birth 
and  death  do  not  appear  in  any  publisht  records,  to  my 
knowledge.  Nor  can  I  obtain  any  information  con- 
cerning him  from  the  various  historical  societies  of  Phil- 
adelphia, where  he  made  his  home  for  many  years. 

Indeed,  it  was  only  after  I  had  given  up  all  hope  of 
solving  this  seeming  mystery,  that  a  happy  chance  gave 
me  a  clue,  which,  followed  up,  revealed  the  existence 
and  place  of  residence  of  one  of  Mr.  Gould's  daugh- 
ters, now  his  only  surviving  child,  and  thus  led  to  my 
securing  information  hitherto  lacking  concerning  Mr. 
Gould' s  parentage,  birth,  family,  and  death. 

Let  me  add  that  while,  in  the  preparation  of  this 
memoir,  I  have  "fisht  in  many  waters"  with  the  pro- 
verbial angler's  lack  of  success,  I  am,  on  the  other 
hand,  greatly  indebted  to  three  good  friends  who  have 
shown  their  practical  interest  in  my  endeavors  by 
spending  time  and  labor  in  researches  which  have  been 
fruitful  of  important  information.  To  these  gentlemen 
— Mr.  Moses  Finzi  Lobo,  of  Philadelphia ;  Mr.  Julius 
Ensign  Rockwell,  of  Washington,  D.  C. ;  and  Mr. 
Hugh  Morrison,  Jr.,  of  the  Library  of  Congress — I 
hereby  acknowledge  my  indebtedness.  Valuable  hints 
and  suggestions  have  been  received  also  from  Mr. 
Jerome  B.  Howard,  of  Cincinnati ;  Mr.  B.  C.  Murray, 
of  Denison,  Texas  ;  Mr.  William  T.  Reeder,  of  Beaver 
Falls,  Pa.;  and  Mr.  H.  F.  Hawkins,  Postmaster  of 


Marcus  T.  C.  Gould. 


Beaver  Falls,  to  all  of  whom,  as  well  as  to  the  members 
of  Mr.  Gould' s  family,  who  have  cordially  assisted  me 
so  far  as  lay  in  their  power,  I  wish  to  express  my  obli- 
gations. 

M.  T.  C.  Gould,  like  his  great  namesake,  was  a  Ro- 
man, but  Rome,  New  York,  and  not  the  Eternal  City, 
claims  the  distinction  of  being  the  birthplace  of  our 
modern  Marcus.  His  parents  were  Chester  and  Mary 
(Warren)  Gould.  Chester  Gould  was  born  in  England, 
of  Welsh  ancestry,  and  in  recognition  of  his  inventive 
genius  in  important  lines  connected  with  the  British 
Navy,  was  granted  a  pension  of  five  hundred  pounds 
sterling  and  the  title  to  ten  thousand  acres  of  land  in 
South  Carolina.  The  exact  date  of  his  coming  to  this 
country  is  not  clear,  nor  the  length  of  stay  here.  The 
son  Marcus  was  born  February  27,  1793,  and  there  are 
evidences  that  as  late  as  1796  Chester  Gould  was  still 
living  in  this  country.  He  died  in  England,  date  un- 
known, and  there,  too,  in  1801  or  1802,  died  his  wife, 
the  mother  of  Marcus.  Chester  Gould  had  two  broth- 
ers, Calvin  and  James,  and  a  sister  Mary,  who  married 
Thomas  Gaylord.  It  was  with  this  aunt  in  Utica  that 
young  Marcus  made  his  home  after  his  father's  death, 
which  was  soon  followed  by  that  of  his  uncle,  Dr. 
Calvin  Gould,  who  had  been  appointed  his  guardian. 
Chester  Gould  was  evidently  a  man  of  substantial  means, 
but  through  carelessness  or  neglect  on  the  part  of  some 
one — it  is  not  certain  just  whom — the  patrimony  of 
Marcus  was  largely  mismanaged  or  lost,  so  that  when 
he  started  in  business  he  was  possest  of  only  moder- 
ate means. 

I  cannot  forbear  relating  a  characteristic  little  story 
of  Gould's  childhood,  which  is  current  in  his  family, 
told  me  recently  by  his  great-granddaughter.  It  illus- 
trates clearly  the  determination  to  accomplish  his  pur- 
poses regardless  of  opposition,  which  Gould  demon- 


io        Marcus  T.  C.  Gould. 


strated  so  well  in  later  life.  Before  Chester  Gould's 
visit  to  England,  from  which  he  never  returned,  he  fan- 
cied that  he  would  like  to  see  his  little  boy,  then  three 
or  four  years  of  age,  dressed  in  the  coat  and  trousers 
to  the  wearing  of  which  all  boys  look  forward  with 
so  much  pleasurable  anticipation.  Accordingly,  little 
Marcus  was  duly  arrayed  in  these  manly  garments  for 
his  father's  inspection,  and  the  result  was  so  much  to 
his  own  delight  that  he  strenuously  insisted  that  he 
would  not  go  back  to  skirts.  The  feminine  members  of 
the  family,  however,  put  a  veto  on  his  masculine  aspira- 
tions, and  considered  the  matter  settled.  Not  so  Mar- 
cus, who,  even  at  this  early  stage,  had  a  mind  of  his 
own,  and  when  the  time  came  to  separate  him  from  his 
cherisht  jacket  and  trousers,  no  traces  of  his  former  and 
now  despised  clothing  were  to  be  found,  nor  was  the 
most  extended  search  able  to  bring  them  to  light,  and 
little  Marcus  was  allowed  to  wear  his  new  costume  in 
triumph.  Long  years  afterward,  upon  the  occasion  of 
alterations  being  made  upon  the  dwelling,  a  large  bun- 
dle of  childish  apparel  was  found  concealed  far  back 
under  the  attic  eaves,  where  the  sharp  eyes  of  the 
mother  and  other  feminine  relatives  had  not  been  able 
to  discover  it,  and  even  to  this  day  the  story  of  this 
little  early  triumph  is  told  to  each  new  generation  of 
Gould's  descendants.  Whether  there  is  any  moral  in 
this  tale,  I  leave  it  to  you  to  decide. 

When  about  twenty-one  he  engaged  in  business  with 
his  brother-in-law,  R.  L.  Hess,  and  conducted  a  store 
at  Onondaga  Hill,  near  Syracuse.  From  here  he  was 
accustomed  to  ride  over  to  Camillus,  to  pay  his  respects 
to  Miss  Maria  Collins  of  that  town,  a  most  attractive 
young  lady,  who  soon  after  became  his  wife,  and  who 
survived  him  after  a  married  life  of  about  forty  years, 
dying  in  1871.  They  had  four  children,  Mary  E., 
Tullius,  Marcus,  and  Adele  E.  Tullius  and  Marcus 


Marcus  T.  C.  Gould.        1 1 


died  in  childhood,  but  the  two  daughters  survived  their 
parents,  Mary,  the  elder,  dying  in  1890,  while  Adele, 
who  married  Harrison  Mendenhall,  still  lives,  in  New 
Brighton,  Pennsylvania.  While  Mary  and  Adele  were 
but  little  tots,  Gould  was  for  a  time  located  at  West 
Point,  where  he  was  engaged  in  teaching  and  report- 
ing, and  it  is  said  that  the  army  officers  stationed 
there  greatly  admired  the  charming  young  matron  and 
her  beautiful  children,  and  might  often  be  seen  pulling 
the  latter  up  and  down  the  long  piazzas,  while  gal- 
lantly addressing  characteristic  compliments  to  their 
mamma. 

About  the  time  of  his  marriage,  Gould  engaged  with 
his  partner  and  brother-in-law  in  operating  salt  works 
near  Syracuse,  but  eventually  gave  this  up  ;  Mr.  Hess 
becoming  clerk  of  courts  at  Syracuse,  a  position  he  held 
for  many  years,  and  Mr.  Gould  taking  up  the  profession 
of  shorthand  teaching  and  reporting  in  which  he  was  to 
achieve  so  signal  success. 

Mr.  Gould' s  life  was  so  busy  and  his  enterprises  so 
varied,  his  activity  continuing  up  to  the  time  of  his 
death,  that  he  never  had  time  or  inclination  to  indulge 
in  the  reminiscences  and  harmless  garrulity  of  age,  so 
that  comparatively  little  is  known  by  his  descendants  of 
his  early  years  and  the  details  of  his  education  ;  but  the 
latter,  whether  the  result  of  academic  training  or  self- 
acquired,  was  very  evidently  thorough  and  of  surprising 
extent,  as  shown  by  the  quality  of  his  original  writings 
and  the  ability  and  taste  displayed  in  the  publications 
which  he  compiled  or  edited. 

It  is  probable  that  all  his  life  up  to  1820,  when  our 
knowledge  of  his  shorthand  labors  begins,  was  spent  in 
New  York  state.  In  the  year  1811  he  was  doubtless 
located  near  what  is  now  Rochester,  New  York,  as 
shown  by  an  interesting  allusion  in  a  pamphlet  publisht 
by  him  twenty-five  years  later,  which  I  quote,  as  follows: 


\ 


12        Marcus  T.  C.  Gould. 


In  the  year  1811  I  forded  the  Genesee  River  at  a  point, 
now  the  center  of  Rochester,  just  above  the  first  considerable 
Fall.  At  that  time  I  was  obliged  to  sleep  in  my  wet  clothes, 
upon  a  green  oak^  plank,  because  the  place  afforded  no  better 
accommodations — it  being  then  a  wilderness,  the  night  dark, 
and  roads  intolerable.  I  spent  a  long  and  sleepless  night, 
amid  the  roar  of  a  tremendous  waterfall,  contending  with 
musquitoes  (sic.),  and  listening  to  the  music  of  owls  and 
frogs,  the  only  inhabitants  of  the  place.  As  little  did  I  then 
imagine  that  the  place  would,  within  twenty  years,  be  the 
center  of  a  large  manufacturing  and  commercial  city,  as  do 
those  who  visit  the  Falls  of  Beaver  imagine  that  in  twenty 
years  we  shall  have  a  much  larger  city  where  I  now  write- 
but  it  will  be  even  so. 

The  earliest  authentic  trace  that  I  have  found  of  his 
work  as  a  stenographer  is  in  Albany,  New  York. 
There,  on  June  19  and  20,  1821,  he  reported  the  im- 
portant second  trial  of  Medad  M'Kay  for  the  murder 
of  his  wife,  the  report  of  which  was  publisht  in  pamph- 
let form,  and  shows  evidence  of  his  ability  as  a  law  re- 
porter. There  are  some  allusions  in  the  printed  volume 
which  would  perhaps  lead  us  to  infer  that  Mr.  Gould 
reported  the  first  trial  of  M'Kay  in  the  preceding 
year,  but  this  cannot  be  definitely  stated  without  better 
authority.  Later  in  the  same  year  Gould  did  what 
was  perhaps  his  most  important  piece  of  reporting,  also 
in  Albany,  for  there  he  took  part  in  the  reporting  of 
the  New  York  State  Constitutional  Convention,  held 
August  28  to  November  10,  inclusive.  There  were  at 
least  two  publisht  reports  of  this  convention,  one  by 
L.  H.  Clarke,  publisht  in  New  York,  and  one  by  N. 
H.  Carter  and  William  L.  Stone,  publisht  in  Albany, 
the  latter  containing  an  engraved  plate.  Both  were 
based  upon  the  stenographic  report  made  by  Mr.  Gould. 

In  a  remarkably  exhaustive  and  interesting  paper 
prepared  and  read  by  my  friend,  Spencer  C.  Rodgers, 
the  distinguish!  Albany  reporter, — a  paper  which 
evinces  great  patience  and  research, — read  at  the  1901 
convention  of  the  New  York  State  Stenographers' 


Marcus  T.  C.  Gould.        1 3 

Association  at  Buffalo,  Gould' s  work  in  this  convention 
is  described  as  follows  : 

The  proceedings  of  the  Constitutional  Convention  held  in 
1821,  occupying  703  pages,  were  reported  by  Marcus  T.  C. 
Gould,  and  bear  evidence  of  considerable  condensation.  In 
a  diagram  of  the  Assembly  Chamber,  the  space  assigned  to 
Mr.  Gould  is  off  at  the  extreme  left  side,  and  outside  of  the 
most  outer  row  of  members,  and  from  my  personal  experience 
in  reporting  debates  in  that  old  Assembly  Chamber,  although 
I  had  a  central  position,  his  opportunity  for  inaccurate  hear- 
ing must  have  been  greatly  enhanced.  His  position  is  markt 
upon  the  diagram  "Gould,"  and  the  interior  of  the  space  is 
occupied  by  some  words  in  the  Gould  system  of  hieroglyphics. 
The  introduction  is  worthy  of  being  transferred  in  part  to 


satisfactory,  but  with  all  their  industry  and  labor  it  is  not 
improbable  that  amidst  other  avocations  errors  may  have 
escaped  their  observation,  and  in  some  cases  perhaps  injustice 
has  been  done  to  the  speakers.  If  such  defects  shall  be 
found,  the  reporters  trust  they  will  find  an  apology  in  the 
difficulty  of  hearing  at  all  times  distinctly,  speakers  in  a  re- 
mote part  of  the  house  ;  of  comprehending  their  arguments 
always  when  they  were  heard,  and  of  following  with  minute 
accuracy  the  detail  of  the  proceedings  amidst  intricacies  and 
confusion  in  which  the  convention  sometimes  found  itself  in- 
volved. The  office  of  reporter  is  one  of  responsibility,  invid- 
ious and  ungrateful.  While  its  duties  are  arduous  and  re- 
sponsible, requiring  great  labor  and  vast  industry,  the  most 
unwearied  and  faithful  discharge  of  these  duties  is  attended 
with  no  adequate  reward  in  a  literary  point  of  view.  The 
nature  of  the  office  precludes  the  exercise  of  those  faculties 
of  the  mind  which  can  alone  confer  dignity  and  reputation 
upon  literary  efforts;  and  the  reporter  in  his  best  estate  is  but 
a  manufacturer  of  intellectual  wares  from  such  raw  materials 
as  are  furnisht  at  his  hands.  This  reduces  his  province  to 


ey  . 

would  be  equally  incompatible  with  the  principles  of  correct 
taste  and  with  the  fidelity  of  the  reporter,  to  attempt  to  invest 
plain  sense  and  dry  argument  with  the  embellishments  of 
fancy  or  elaborate  elegance  of  diction.  It  is  the  duty  of  the 
reporter  to  give  the  speeches  both  in  matter  and  manner  as 
they  were  delivered,  except  in  such  inadvertent  inaccuracies 
as  might  be  supposed  to  occur  in  the  heat  and  hurry  of  de- 
bate." 


14        Marcus  T.  C.  Gould. 

In  another  report  of  the  convention  the  publisher  states 
that  it  was  found  impossible  in  the  course  of  proceedings  for 
one  reporter  to  take  and  transcribe  verbatim  the  speeches  of 
all  those  who  at  different  times  occupied  the  floor,  and  there- 
fore he  has  entered  into  an  agreement  with  Messrs.  Gould, 
Stone,  and  Carter,  by  which  he  has  been  enabled  to  avail 
himself  of  the  labors  of  all  those  who  were  engaged  in  re- 
porting. Stone  and  Carter  I  think  were  editors. 

In  the  same  year  he  was  engaged  to  some  extent  in 
legislative  reporting  in  Albany,  as  shown  by  the  "  De- 
bate in  the  Senate  of  New  York  on  Mr.  Granger's 
motion  .  .  .  with  Mr.  Granger's  address  to  the 
Conventions  of  the  two  Republican  Parties  in  the  West- 
ern District,"  taken  in  shorthand  by  Mr.  Gould  and 
publisht  in  Albany,  1821. 

All  this  work  was  done  previous  to  the  issuing  of  his 
text-book  on  shorthand,  although,  as  will  be  shown,  he 
was  engaged  at  this  time  in  teaching  the  art  as  well  as 
in  reporting.  Gould  based  his  method  upon  that  of 
Samuel  Taylor,  first  publisht  in  England  in  1 786,  and 
already  applied  to  a  number  of  the  European  lan- 
guages. In  1809  appeared  in  Boston  a  cheap  reprint 
of  a  small  London-publisht  pamphlet  explaining  Tay- 
lor's system  (see  PHONOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE,  Vol. 
XVI,  p.  161),  which  may  have  fallen  into  Gould's 
hands,  but  it  is  fair  to  presume  that  the  well-gotten-up 
Albany  edition  of  Taylor's  complete  work,  brought  out 
in  1810  (see  PHONOGRAPHIC  MAGAZINE,  Vol.  XVI, 
p.  163),  may  well  have  been  the  basis  of  Gould's  sys- 
tem, for  only  eleven  years  after,  in  1821,  we  find  traces 
of  his  successful  teaching  of  the  art.  His  earliest  pub- 
lisht work  now  extant  is  the  "Analytic  Guide,"  first 
publisht  in  Albany  in  1823.  There  is  reason  to  be- 
lieve, however,  that  even  earlier  than  this,  Mr.  Gould 
had  prepared  printed  lesson  material  in  some  form  for 
the  use  of  his  scholars.  It  is  probable  that  this  was  of 
such  an  ephemeral  nature,  perhaps  mere  leaflets  or 


Marcus  T.  C.  Gould.        15 

cards,  that  none  have  survived  the  vicissitudes  of  eighty- 
odd  years;  but  allusions  in  his  earliest  known  works 
seem  to  point  to  the  existence  of  something  of  the 
kind,  and  copies  may  yet  turn  up  to  delight  the  heart 
of  some  fortunate  collector.  When  we  remember  that 
the  lesson-sheets  prepared  and  used  by  one  of  the  most 
successful  teachers  of  phonography  in  its  early  days, 
Rev.  Oliver  Dyer,  have  vanisht  from  the  knowledge  of 
shorthand  scholars  and  bibliographers  in  the  much 
shorter  space  of  time  elapsing  since  he  instructed  his 
immense  classes  in  the  fifties  and  late  forties,  and  that 
the  only  set  now  known  is  that  resurrected  by  Mr. 
David  Wolfe  Brown,  from  a  Philadelphia  bookstall,  we 
can  understand  how  aperhaps  still  more  evanescent 
presentation  of  Gould's  system,  publisht  a  quarter  cen- 
tury before,  has  totally  disappeared.  It  appears  reason- 
ably certain,  moreover,  that  some  time  before  his  manual 
appeared,  Gould  had  arranged  Taylor's  system  briefly 
in  the  form  of  a  map  or  chart  with  the  title  "  Steno- 
graphic Synopsis."  This  is  referred  to  in  an  adapta- 
tion of  Taylor  publisht  by  Jonathan  Dodge,  of  Provi- 
dence, Rhode  Island,  in  the  early  part  of  1823,  practi- 
cally contemporaneously  with  the  first  edition  of  Gould's 
'  'Analytic  Guide. ' '  It  would  seem  from  the  manner  in 
which  Dodge  alludes  to  Gould  that  the  former  was  not 
aware  of  the  publication  of  the  "  Guide,"  but  was 
familiar  with  the  aforesaid  chart.  This  chart  was  ad- 
vertised by  Gould  in  his  1823  and  later  editions,  vari- 
ously as  a  "map,"  "chart,"  and  "card,"  at  first  at 
one  dollar,  and  later,  in  a  "revised  edition,"  at  two 
dollars.  It  was  described  as  being  so  large  that  when 
hung  on  the  wall  the  characters  were  clearly  visible  to 
a  whole  school.  Gould  also  publisht  and  advertised  a 
set  of  "  stenographic  cards  in  a  neat  morocco  case,"  at 
two  dollars,  devised  to  accompany  this  chart.  I  do 
not  know  of  the  location  of  any  of  these  sets. 


1 6        Marcus  T.  C.  Gould. 


Gould's  reputation  as  a  teacher  of  shorthand  seems 
to  have  become  firmly  establish!  even  before  the  publi- 
cation of  his  text-book,  because  in  the  first  edition  some 
glowing  testimonials  are  printed,  which  demonstrate  him 
to  be,  at  least  for  the  period,  a  teacher  of  remarkable 
ability  and  success. 

We  of  the  latter  days  are  apt  to  think  and  speak  dis- 
dainfully of  those  whose  benighted  eyes  never  saw  the 
beautiful  and  compact  combinations  of  right  lines,  cir- 
cles, and  quadrants,  which  go  to  make  up  phonography 
— as  a  genus,  regardless  of  '  'system  "  or  "  method, ' '  the 
most  successful  and  perhaps  the  only  really  adequate 
means  of  recording  human  speech  yet  discovered — but 
it  must  be  admitted  that  a  system  which  has  endured, 
under  the  most  exacting  conditions  and  despite  all  com- 
petition, for  nearly  120  years,  as  has  Samuel  Taylor's, 
and  which  as  taught  and  practist  by  Gould  received 
such  encomiums  as  were  bestowed  upon  him  and  it  by 
some  of  the  leading  educators  and  jurists  of  his  day, 
which  was  indorst  by  hundreds  or  even  thousands  of  sat- 
isfied students,  and  which  has  preserved  for  us  thousands 
of  printed  pages  of  speeches,  sermons,  debates,  and  tes- 
timony, must  have  had  elements  of  viability  and  at  least 
the  possibilities  in  skilful  hands  of  real  and  credit- 
able reporting.  So  that  from  the  vantage-point  of 
acknowledged  superiority,  we  may  at  least  esteem 
those  early  systems  and  the  reporters  who  used  them 
so  skilfully,  as  not  unworthy  predecessors,  and  per- 
haps, all  things  considered,  more  able  and  credit- 
able representatives  of  our  profession  in  its  youth  than 
we  are  in  its  prime.  Perhaps  even  at  a  distance  in  the 
future  no  greater  than  that  from  which  we  look  back 
pityingly  at  Gould  and  his  fellow  reporters  toiling  away 
in  a  desperate  endeavor  to  follow  a  rapid  speaker,  some 
stenographic  New  Zealander,  curiously  inspecting  our 
text-books  and  our  printed  reports,  and  perchance  even 


Marcus  T.  C.  Gould.        17 

a  few  specimens  of  our  shorthand  notes,  laid  away  in 
some  museum  or  library  as  mementos  of  the  time  when 
the  old-fashioned  methods  of  shorthand  writing  used  at 
the  beginning  of  the  twentieth  century  were  in  vogue, 
will  wonderingly  glance  through  your  note-book  or 
mine,  and  see  where  we  floundered  along  wildly  about 
fifty  words  behind  some  fluent  lawyer  cross-examining 
a  glib  witness  about  the  manner  of  taking  a  culture  for 
the  bacillus  of  tuberculosis,  or  the  result  of  a  test  of  the 
alignment  of  a  compound  steam  engine,  and  think  how 
crude  and  imperfect  our  methods  must  have  been.  To  be 
sure,  in  our  up-to-date  self-sufficiency,  we  know  our 
systems  are  the  acme  of  shorthand  progress ;  but  Mar- 
cus Tullius  Cicero  Gould  thought  his  was ;  and  that 
elder  Marcus  Tullius  doubtless  advertised  in  the  Rome 
Sunday  Stylus  that  at  last  the  problem  of  verbatim 
reporting  was  solved,  and  warned  all  readers  to  beware 
of  the  antiquated  methods  of  Andrew  J.  Romulus  and 
Isaac  P.  Remus.  ' '  Tiro' s  system  is  absolutely  the 
only  one  indorst  by  the  orators  of  the  Tribune  and 
Forum.  Reporting  speed  in  three  months.  Engage- 
ments made  by  the  author  to  furnish  accurate  reports  of 
speeches,  debates,  and  trials.  '  Daily  copy '  if  desired. 
References,  Col.  M.  T.  Cicero,  and  many  other  emi- 
nent senators.  Pocket  edition,  on  papyrus,  15  sestertii ; 
edition  de  luxe  on  real  parchment,  IO  denarii.  No. 
1625  North  Appian  Way."  Truly  there  is  nothing 
new  under  the  sun,  and  doubtless  those  swift  writers 
"out  of  Zebulon,"  of  whom  we  read  in  Holy  Writ, 
really  thought  themselves  as  skilful  as  we  to-day  be- 
lieve our  Murphy  and  Brown  and  Irland  and  Dem- 
ming  and  Rodgers  and  even  (whisper  it  softly)  our- 
selves ! 

But  it  is  a  far  cry  from  Habakkuk  and  his  robed  and 
sandaled  scribes  on  the  banks  of  the  Euphrates  to  M. 
T.  C.  Gould  half  way  up  the  Hudson,  and  we,  nearing 


1 8       Marcus  T.  C.  Gould. 

that  century  point  previous  to  which  it  is  said  no  true 
and  unbiased  history  can  be  written,  may  perhaps  be 
able  for  the  time  being  to  imagine  ourselves  unpreju- 
diced onlookers,  and  follow  him  in  his  stenographic 
peregrinations. 

In  those  days  competent  reporters  were  few.  There 
was  not  sufficient  lucrative  employment  to  warrant  the 
establishment  of  reporters'  offices  here,  there,  and 
everywhere,  as  at  the  present  time.  Consequently,  the 
services  of  the  proficient  stenographer  were  liable  to  be 
called  from  widely  separated  portions  of  the  country ; 
and  the  field  of  Gould' s  reporting  experiences  seems  to 
have  ranged  from  New  England  to  South  Carolina,  as 
shown  by  the  printed  reports  issued  by  him  or  by  those 
employing  him.  It  is  noticeable  that  in  the  early  his- 
tory of  shorthand  reporting  printed  transcripts  of  the 
reporter's  notes  were  issued  with  much  greater  fre- 
quency than  now,  and  it  would  not  be  difficult  for  a 
collector  of  such  "literature"  to  get  together  a  library 
of  most  imposing  dimensions.  It  is,  therefore,  to  these 
"landmarks"  and  the  internal  evidence  of  his  other 
publications  that  we  owe  much  that  we  are  able  to  glean 
concerning  the  career  of  Gould. 

His  text-book  of  shorthand  must  have  been  received 
with  immediate  favor,  since  we  find  him  publishing  his 
second  edition  in  Albany,  in  1823,  only  a  few  months 
after  the  first,  and  in  1824,  he  issues  in  New  Haven, 
Connecticut,  a  third  edition,  followed  by  a  fourth  edi- 
tion the  same  year  in  New  York  City.  The  demand 
would  then  seem  to  have  abated,  or  the  editions  may 
have  been  larger,  for  the  fifth  edition  did  not  appear 
until  about  two  years  later,  in  1826,  in  Baltimore, 
Maryland.  In  the  mean  time,  however,  one  H.  L. 
Barnum  had  brought  forth  in  Baltimore,  in  1824,  a 
seemingly  absolute  plagiarism  of  Gould's  "Guide." 
By  comparing  the  title-page  and  frontispiece,  the  great 


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KAf'SlMII.K    OF    PAGE    OF   NOTES    FROM 
M.    T.    C.    GOTTI.n'S    NOTKI1OOK 


20        Marcus  T.  C.  Gould. 


similarity  of  wording  and  style  is  at  once  apparent.  In 
the  body  of  the  book  there  is  hardly  a  word  altered, 
and  with  the  exception  of  some  omissions  and  an  occa- 
sional attempt  to  re-arrange  the  wording  on  some  of  the 
plates,  it  seems  impossible  that  it  could  be  anything  but 
a  premeditated  "steal."  It  is  probable  that  Gould 
alluded  to  this  work  of  Barnum's  when  he  says  in  his 
own  1824  edition  : 

The  numerous  attempts  of  quacks  and  pretenders,  to  rob 
the  author  of  the  lawful  fruits  of  his  labour  by  plagiarism  and 
falsehood,  instead  of  injuring,  have  helpt  to  raise  his  system 
to  the  station  which  it  merits  ;  and  to  depress,  in  an  equal 
ratio,  the  individuals  who  would  thus  wantonly  trample  upon 
the  rights  of  a  benefactor. 

And  to  make  the  allusion  more  pointed,  he  adds  in  a 
footnote  : 

A  number  of  the  author's  pupils  have  violated  the  rights 
of  their  benefactor,  and  forfeited  their  claims  to  the  name  of 
gentlemen,  by  imposing  upon  the  public  their  plagiarisms, 
and  perversions  of  a  subject,  which  neither  their  reading, 
nor  experience,  had  qualified  them  to  comprehend. 

Yet  any  differences  between  Gould  and  Barnum 
would  seem  to  have  been  adjusted  later,  since  in  1832 
we  find  an  apparently  authentic  edition  of  his  '  'Guide' ' 
issued  in  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  with  the  same  H.  L.  Bar- 
num's name  appearing  as  publisher.  Capt.  H.  L. 
Barnum  was,  it  seems,  a  man  after  Gould' s  own  heart. 
He  was  by  turns  a  shorthand  author,  teacher,  and  pub- 
lisher, a  compiler  of  works  on  farriery  and  farming 
which  attained  a  wide  circulation,  and  a  civil  engineer. 
His  principal  bid  for  fame,  however,  is  his  "  Spy  Un- 
maskt,"  publisht  in  1828,  purporting  to  be  the  memoirs 
of  the  original  of  the  hero  of  Fenimore  Cooper's  popular 
novel,  "The  Spy."  The  full  title  was  "The  Spy  Un- 
maskt ;  or  Memoirs  of  Enoch  Crosby,  alias  Harvey 
Birch,  the  hero  of  Mr.  Cooper's  tale  of  the  Neutral 
Ground  :  being  an  authentic  account  of  the  secret  serv- 


Marcus  T.  C.  Gould.        21 

ices  which  he  rendered  his  country  during  the  Revolu- 
tionary War,  (taken  from  his  own  lips,  in  shorthand), 
comprising  many  interesting  facts  and  anecdotes  never 
before  publisht.  By  H.  L.  Barnum.  Embellisht  with 
a  correct  likeness  of  the  hero,  with  a  fac  simile  of  his 
signature."  The  portrait  alluded  to  bears  the  inscrip- 
tion, "Drawn  from  life  by  Capt.  H.  L.  Barnum." 
This  book  was  very  popular,  several  editions  being 
issued  in  this  country,  and  it  was  reprinted  in  England 
in  two  volumes.  Barnum  was  also  for  a  time  editor  of 
an  agricultural  paper,  the  Farmer1  s  Reporter. 

Dodge,  before  mentioned,  seems  to  have  modeled 
after  Gould  to  some  extent,  but  is  candid  enough  to 
mention  him,  albeit  with  "faint  praise."  It  is  pos- 
sible, however,  that  Gould  included  him  also  in  his  de- 
nunciatory expressions.  At  all  events,  Dodge  and 
Barnum  were  the  only  publishers  of  Taylorian  short- 
hands in  this  country  between  the  issuing  of  the  first 
edition  of  the  "Guide"  and  the  third  edition,  in  which 
these  expressions  occur.  Rev.  Phinehas  Bailey,  to  be 
sure,  was  quite  actively  engaged  in  disseminating  a 
modification  of  Taylor's  system  throughout  New  En- 
land,  but  at  least  three  editions  of  his  little  manual 
appeared  in  1821  and  1822,  thus  antedating  any  of 
Gould's  known  works,  and  it  is  probable  that  as  early 
as  1819  he  had  publisht  something  in  the  nature  of 
instruction  material ;  so  that  he  cannot  fairly  be  in- 
cluded in  the  ' '  imitators ' '  of  Gould. 

The  sixth  edition  of  Gould' s  work  was  publisht  in 
Philadelphia  in  1827,  being  the  first  printed  in  that 
city,  from  which,  however,  every  later  edition  ex- 
cept that  of  1832  in  Cincinnati,  before  mentioned,  was 
to  issue.  This  (sixth)  edition  is  very  rare,  my  copy 
being  the  only  one  known  to  me. 

It  would  seem  that  at  least  as  early  as  1826  Gould 
had  made  Philadelphia  his  home  and  was  engaged  in 


22        Marcus  T.  C.  Gould. 


teaching  and  reporting  there.  The  earliest  newspaper 
advertisement  of  Gould' s  business  that  I  have  seen,  was 
printed  in  the  National  Gazette  of  Philadelphia,  of 
November  13,  1826.  This  is  in  the  collection  of  Mr. 
M.  F.  Lobo,  of  Philadelphia.  I  have  in  my  collection 
similar  advertisements  publisht  in  the  Saturday  Eve- 
ning Post  of  the  same  city,  28  February  and  9  May, 
1829  ;  and  doubtless  a  perusal  of  the  Philadelphia 
papers  of  that  period  would  show  many  more. 

An  interesting  phase  of  Mr.  Gould's  life  is  his  con- 
nection with  the  Hicksite  Quakers,  which  covered  a 
period  of  eight  or  nine  years.  For  a  considerable  time 
he  conducted  or  was  interested  in  a  ' '  Friends'  Book 
Store"  at  420  Pearl  Street,  New  York  City,  and  for  some 
years  publisht  in  Philadelphia  reports  related  to  the  So- 
ciety of  Friends  or  its  members;  and  he  republisht  various 
works  by  or  relating  to  the  early  Quakers,  among  them  the 
works  of  George  Fox,  the  founder  of  the  Society,  in 
eight  volumes.  The  earliest  work  of  this  nature  that  I 
have  seen  is  a  book  in  my  own  collection  entitled : 
"Sermons  |  by  |  Thomas  Wetherald,  ]  delivered  in 
the  Friends'  meeting  |  Washington  City,  |  March  20 
and  27,  1825.  |  Taken  in  short  hand,  |  by  Marcus  T.  C. 
Gould,  |  stenographer.  |  Second  edition.  |  Philadel- 
phia :  |  Printed  for  the  Proprietor,  |  Price  25  cents.  | 
1825." 

This  is  a  pamphlet  of  about  fifty  pages  and  demon- 
strates Gould's  ability  as  a  reporter  of  religious  dis- 
courses. 

In  1828  he  reported  two  important  trials  of  Quakers, 
one  in  Philadelphia,  in  June,  and  the  other  in  Steuben- 
ville,  Ohio,  in  October.  The  reports  were  printed,  and 
the  titles,  taken  from  copies  of  the  books  in  my  collec- 
tion, are  as  follows : 

Report  of  the  Trial  of  Friends  in  the  City  of  Philadel- 
phia, June,  1828,  or,  the  case  of  Edmund  Shotwell,  Joseph 


TF  E  ANALYTIC  Gin  OK  . 


JiMtrrKarit  Sc 

FRONTISPIECE  TO  FIRST  EDITION. 
From  copy  in  American  Antiquarian  Society  library. 


24        Marcus  T.  C.  Gould. 

Lukins,  Charles  Middleton,  and  two  others,  taken  in  short- 
hand by  M.  T.  C.  Gould,  Philadelphia.  J.  Harding,  Printer, 
1828.  154  pp.  8vo. 

Report  of  the  Trial  of  Friends  at  Steubenville,  Ohio,  15- 
i6th  of  October,  1828.  Philadelphia,  1829. 

In  the  following  year,  1829,  appeared  the  seventh 
edition  of  his  text-book.  This  was  a  "stereotyped" 
edition,  and  with  few  changes  was  reprinted  in  1830, 
1832,  1841,  1844,  1845,  1858,  and  1860.  The  1832 
edition  is  the  last  which  bears  his  name  as  publisher. 
The  1830  edition  bears  no  publisher's  imprint,  but  was 
doubtless  issued  by  Gould,  as  the  1832  (Philadelphia) 
edition  bears  the  familiar  words,  ' '  No.  6,  North  Eighth 
Street."  The  same  year  he  issued,  as  publisher,  the 
following  curious  work  on  Quakerism  :  ' '  The  |  True 
Christian's  |  Faith  and  Experience  |  briefly  declared,  | 
(fourteen  lines  of  explanatory  title)  |  by  William 
Shewen.  |  (seven  lines  of  Biblical  quotations)  |  (Lon- 
don) printed  1684-5.  I  Philadelphia,  reprinted  and 
publisht  by  M.  T.  C.  Gould,  1830.  |  Jesper  Harding, 
printer. 

Printed  continuously  with  this  are  two  tracts  entitled 
"A  Few  Words  Concerning  Conscience,  what  it  is; 
and  what  estate  it  was  in  before  transgression.  .  . 
By  William  Shewen.  Philadelphia :  Marcus  T.  C. 
Gould,  No.  6,  North  Eighth  Street.  New  York;: 
Isaac  T.  Hopper,  No.  420,  Pearl  Street.  1830,"  and 
"A  small  treatise  concerning  evil  thoughts  and  imagi- 
nations, and  concerning  good  thoughts  and  heavenly 

meditations By   W.    S.      Philadelphia : 

Marcus  T.  C.  Gould,  No.  6,  North  Eighth  Street. 
New  York  :  Isaac  T.  Hopper,  No.  420,  Pearl  Street. 
1830." 

Notwithstanding  his  deep  interest  in  the  doctrines  of 
Elias  Hicks  and  his  followers,  Gould  never  became  a 
Friend,  but  later  joined  the  Episcopal  Church.  He 
gave  the  ground  for  the  Episcopal  church  buildings  in 


Marcus  T.  C.  Gould.        25 

Rochester,  Pennsylvania,  and  in  Newport,   Kentucky, 
and  was  a  tithingman  in  the  Rochester  church. 

This  year,  1830,  also  witnest  the  appearance  of  his 
ingenious  little  periodical  entitled  : 

The  American  Repertory  of  Arts,  Sciences,  and  Useful 
Literature,  Vol.  II. — January,  1831, — No.  I.  Publish!  in 
periodical  monthly  numbers,  of  24  pages  each,  at  $i  a  year; 
or  sold  in  single  numbers  at  12^  cents  each.  By  M.  T.  C. 
Gould,  No.  6,  North  Eighth  Street,  Philadelphia,  and  No. 
420,  Pearl  Street,  New  York.  Philadelphia.  Jesper  Hard- 
ing Printer.  1831.  Postage  under  100  miles,  i%  cents;  over 
100,  2^.  (This  is  the  full  title  of  the  first  issue  of  Volume  2; 
I  have  not  seen  a  copy  of  the  original  issue  of  Volume  I.) 

The  objects  of  this  work  may  be  best  explained  by 
quoting  his  prospectus,  which  was  in  part  as  follows  : 

Introduction  to  the  first  volume  of  the  American  Reper- 
tory of  Arts,  Sciences,  and  Useful  Literature.  The  object  of 
this  work  is  to  furnish,  in  numbers,  to  the  rising  generation, 
a  Miniature  Encyclopaedia,  or  General  Cabinet,  embracing  an 
epitome  of  the  most  interesting  topics  of  the  age. 

In  carrying  out  this  design,  three  important  principles 
will  be  constantly  in  view  : 

First. — To  select  from  the  great  mass  of  human  knowledge 
that  only  which  is  useful  or  ornamental. 

Second. — To  condense  matter  and  language  as  far  as  prac- 
tical utility  will  admit. 

Third. — To  systematize  and  arrange  the  whole  in  such 
manner,  that  each  and  every  portion  may  be  turned  to  at 
pleasure,  without  the  usual  alphabetic  order  of  the  several 
articles,  or  the  trouble  of  a  common  index. — 

The  example  of  the  bee,  in  drawing  from  an  almost  in- 
finite variety  of  substances,  that  only  which  is  adapted  to  its 
particular  wants  and  mode  of  life,  to  the  exclusion  of  all 
superfluous  or  extraneous  matter,  and  the  ingenious  method 
pursued  in  arranging  its  small,  but  precious,  stores,  for 
future  use,  suggested  the  idea  of  a  small  periodical,  of  which 
this  is  a  specimen. 

Though  the  primary  aim  of  the  work  will  be  to  extract, 
abstract,  and  concentrate,  within  convenient  limits,  that 
which  is  evidently  useful — still,  whatever  is  ornamental  in 
literature,  science,  and  the  arts,  will  not  be  overlookt. — 

Another  prominent  object  will  be,  to  furnish  the  best 
practical  system  for  accumulating,  independently  of  this 
work,  appropriate  mental  stores,  for  the  varied  purposes  of 


26        Marcus  T.  C.  Gould. 


life,  in  whatever  department  it  may  fall.  The  first  few 
numbers  will  communicate  a  practical  knowledge  of  that 
labour  and  time-saving  art,  Short-Hand ;  after  which  they 
will  exhibit  in  their  progress,  a  model  place  book,  to  be 
copied,  or  imitated,  as  circumstances  shall  justify,  by  all  who 
approve  the  plan. — 

For  illustration,  suppose  two  individuals,  tn  every  respect 
equal,  take  a  volume  of  500  pages — the  one  hurries  through  it, 
and  lays  it  down  to  be  neglected  and  forgotten ;  the  other 
takes  time  while  he  reads,  to  weigh  deliberately  each  chap- 
ter, section,  or  topic  ;  and,  while  it  is  fresh  in  the  mind, 
enters  in  his  place  book,  in  short-hand  or  common-hand,  the 
substance,  or,  at  least,  the  name  of  the  subject,  and  page 
where  it  is  found.  Upon  the  completion  of  the  volume,  he 
will  have  formed,  perhaps  upon  five  pages,  a  summary  of  the 
500.  For  most  purposes,  a  perusal  of  the  five  pages  will  be  as 
beneficial  and  satisfactory,  as  the  re-perusal  of  the  whole  500, 
though  requiring  but  looth  part  of  the  time.  These  five 
pages  then  serve  as  a  general  brief,  or  index  to  the  volume — 
by  which  its  contents  are  made  familiar,  or  any  particular 
part  referred  to,  when  occasion  requires.  Need  the  question 
then  be  askt,  which  of  the  two  will  make  the  greatest  im- 
provement, the  one  practising  this  plan,  or  the  one  neglect- 
ing it  ?  The  result  is  too  obvious  to  deserve  the  question,  or 
answer,  as  can  be  testified  by  many  who  have  made  the  ex- 
periment. 

It  is  only  necessary,  then,  to  go  one  step  farther,  and  pre- 
pare a  key  to  the  place  book  thus  constructed  ;  and  all  the 
reading  of  a  long  life  may  be  referred  to,  as  the  merchant  re- 
fers to  debit  and  credit  in  his  leger,  by  the  aid  of  his  alphabet, 
journal,  day-book,  &c." 

Volume  I  of  this  work  contained  his  system  of  short- 
hand and  other  valuable  and  interesting  information, 
and  was  received  with  so  much  public  approval  that  in 
1832  it  became  necessary  to  reprint  Volume  I  complete. 
In  the  mean  time  Volume  II,  for  1831,  had  appeared, 
and  although  the  shorthand  lessons  were  not  included 
in  this  volume,  there  are  a  number  of  side-lights  thrown 
upon  Mr.  Gould  and  his  work.  The  prospectus  to  the 
first  volume  explains  the  scope  of  the  work,  which  dis- 
plays good  judgment  and  considerable  scholarship. 

An  interesting  advertisement  in  this  periodical  de- 
scribes his  recently-patented  (October,  1830)  fountain 


Marcus  T.  C.  Gould.        27 

pen,  which  he  retailed  at  from  $2  to  $15,  according  as 
it  was  plain  silver,  gold  trimmed,  or  "all  gold."  This 
appears  to  have  been  one  of  the  earliest,  if  not  the 
earliest  patent  issued  in  this  country  on  a  fountain  pen. 

In  Philadelphia,  also,  beginning  about  1827,  he 
publisht  two  Quaker  periodicals,  one  styled  the 
Quaker,  consisting  of  sermons,  prayers,  etc.,  of 
Hicksite  Quaker  preachers,  taken  in  shorthand  by  Mr. 
Gould  himself;  and  the  Friend,  or  Advocate  of  Truth, 
devoted  to  spreading  the  doctrines  of  Elias  Hicks  and 
his  followers. 

In  1832  editions  of  his  shorthand  text-book  appeared 
in  Philadelphia  and  Cincinnati,  and  after  that  year  Mr. 
Gould  appears  to  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  publish- 
ing of  his  system,  editions  of  which  appeared  at  inter- 
vals for  nearly  thirty  years,  with  the  imprint  of  a 
Philadelphia  firm  of  booksellers. 

Gould' s  system,  as  has  been  stated,  has  received  scant 
attention  at  the  hands  of  shorthand  historians.  He  is 
not  mentioned  by  Matthias  Levy  or  Isaac  Pitman  in 
their  respective  histories,  and  Anderson  dismisses  him 
with  a  line,  not  even  giving  his  name  correctly : 
"Gould,  M.  J.  The  Stenographic  Reporter,  Washing- 
ton." In  Benn  Pitman's  "  History  of  Shorthand," 
under  the  heading  of  "Samuel  Taylor,  1786,"  he 
says  :  ' '  The  system  extensively  known  in  this  country 
as  Gould's  (Marcus  T.  C.  Gould)  is  with  some  trifling 
alterations  copied  from  Taylor's."  Only  this  and 
nothing  more  of  the  man  who  had  done  more  than  any 
other  to  popularize  shorthand  before  the  advent  of  pho- 
nography and  its  brilliant  and  energetic  propagandists. 

John  Westby-Gibson,  with  no  apparent  foundation, 
implies  that  Gould  merely  reprinted  William  Harding' s 
adaptation  of  Taylor.  But  Gould' s  "  Guide ' '  appeared 
early  in  January,  1823,  being  copyrighted  January  2  of 
that  year,  and  Harding' s  first  edition,  publisht  in  1823, 


28        Marcus  T.  C.  Gould. 


could  not  by  any  possibility  have  reacht  this  country  in 
time  to  be  seized  upon  and  reprinted  by  Gould  at  the 
date  his  own  work  appeared,  and  in  all  probability 
Gould' s  work  appeared  first,  to  say  nothing  of  the  fact 
that  although  there  is  little  difference  in  the  system  pre- 
sented, both  being  offshoots  of  Taylor's  stenography, 
the  manner  of  presentation  is  entirely  different.  Indeed 
it  would  seem  that  the  good  old  Doctor,  who  had 
probably  never  seen  an  edition  of  Gould  earlier  than 
1829  or  1830,  drew  upon  his  often  buoyant  imagina- 
tion a  little,  and  putting  two  and  two  together,  made 
Jive.  It  is  of  interest  in  this  connection  to  note  that 
Gould's  favorite  printer  was  a  Philadelphia  Quaker 
named  Jesper  Harding,  whose  name  appears  in  connec- 
tion with  the  "  Repertory"  and  various  other  publica- 
tions of  Gould,  and  this  association  of  names  may  have 
caused  Dr.  Westby-Gibson  by  "unconscious  cerebra- 
tion ' '  to  record  this  fancied  indebtedness  of  Gould  to 
another  Harding. 

Edward  Pocknell,  however,  more  discerning,  must 
have  given  Gould' s  work  a  careful  examination,  for  he 
says  ("  Shorthand,"  Vol.  I,  page  27)  that  he  has  a  copy 
"printed  in  Philadelphia  in  1831  "  (an  error,  he  writes 
me,  for  the  1832  edition,  which  was  copyrighted  in  1831), 
and  states  that  Gould' s  system  is  noticeable  as  pairing 
several  consonant  strokes,  light  and  heavy,  for  example, 
f,  v;  k,  q ;  j,  g.  This  is  true,  and  Brother  Pocknell 
might  have  included  also  in  his  statement,  d,  r ;  and 
s,  z;  which  are  likewise  paired  by  Gould. 

Julius  Ensign  Rockwell,  our  impartial  and  compre- 
hensive bibliographer,  was  the  first  to  show  Gould  in 
his  proper  colors,  by  giving  in  his  Bibliography  (1884) 
the  long  list  of  Gould's  shorthand  works  and  the 
alphabet  of  his  system,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  in 
future,  however  preferable  we  may  think  our  modern 
methods  are,  we  shall  be  ready  to  give  due  credit  and 


Marcus  T.  C.  Gould.        29 

honor  to  the  indefatigable  Gould,  as  a  good  stenogra- 
pher, a  successful  teacher,  and  an  earnest  worker  for 
the  popularization  of  shorthand. 

At  least  two  able  reporters  of  Congress  learned 
Gould's  system,  though  neither  of  them  used  it  in 
congressional  reporting.  Mr.  William  Henry  Burr, 
who  was  a  congressional  reporter  in  the  sixties,  learned 
Gould's  system  at  school,  but  never  made  any  practical 
use  of  it,  dropping  it  eventually  to  take  up  phonography 
under  the  instruction  of  Rev.  Oliver  Dyer.  But  Mr. 
John  Howard  White,  who  for  the  past  quarter  century 
has  had  a  brilliant  record  as  one  of  the  official  reporters 
of  the  house  of  representatives,  thoroughly  mastered 
Gould's  system  and  used  it  for  a  number  of  years  in 
practical  shorthand  work  as  a  court  reporter,  finally 
defying  the  old  adage  about  "  swapping  horses  while 
crossing  a  stream,"  by  successfully  changing  to  the 
Benn  Pitman  system  in  the  midst  of  the  arduous  duties 
attendant  upon  reporting  a  four  months'  constitutional 
convention  at  Richmond,  Virginia.  Mr.  White,  it  is 
said,  still  retains  the  vowel  scale  of  Gould,  somewhat 
modified  by  himself. 

Gould's  Quaker  son-in-law,  Harrison  Mendenhall, 
was  an  expert  writer  of  Gould' s  system,  and  it  appears 
from  their  correspondence  that  he  sometimes  wrote  to 
Gould  in  stenography ;  while  Mr.  Gould' s  cousin  and 
favorite  pupil,  Titus  William  Powers  of  New  York, 
wrote  the  New  Testament  in  his  system,  had  it  neatly 
bound  and  presented  it  to  him.  This  copy  is  now,  I 
believe,  in  the  State  Library  at  Albany,  where  also  are 
said  to  be  the  original  shorthand  notes  taken  at  the 
Albany  convention. 

Edward  Hopper,  son  of  Isaac  T.  Hopper,  a  promi- 
nent Quaker,  who  had  charge  for  some  time  of  Gould's 
publishing  business  in  New  York,  and  between  whom 
(the  father)  and  Gould  a  bitter  and  deplorable  contro- 


30        Marcus  T.  C.  Gould. 

versy  arose,  was  for  some  time  Mr.  Gould' s  assistant  in 
teaching  shorthand,  and  afterwards  did  some  creditable 
reporting.  I  have  seen  several  printed  trials  with  his 
name  as  reporter  on  the  title-page. 

I  believe  that  the  most  famous  writer  of  Gould's 
system,  however,  was  Patrick  Kean,  of  Richmond, 
Virginia,  who  was  the  shorthand  reporter  of  the  Con- 
federate Congress,  and  who  may  very  likely  have  been 
one  of  Gould' s  pupils. 

Adam  Miller,  of  Chicago,  author  of  an  adaptation  of 
Gould's  system  styled  "  Laconography,"  publisht  about 
1890,  I  believe,  was  in  his  youth  a  pupil  of  Mr.  Gould, 
and  stated  that  he  used  the  system  for  upward  of  fifty 
years  in  reporting  and  for  all  classes  of  shorthand  work. 

Indeed,  we  must  conclude  that  Gould' s  system  was 
at  one  time  extensively  used,  and  that  it  has  stood  the 
test  of  practical  work  in  many  hands  besides  those  of 
the  inventor  himself. 

As  it  is  always  a  matter  of  interest  to  know  what 
manner  of  man  physically  a  noted  personage  was,  I 
may  say  that  Gould  was  a  man  of  striking  personal 
appearance ;  lacking  only  a  fraction  of  an  inch  of  being 
six  feet  tall,  straight  and  well-proportioned,  with  a 
ruddy  complexion,  bright  blue  eyes,  and  hair,  which, 
gray  at  thirty,  became  snow  white  in  later  years,  so 
that,  especially  when  drest  in  the  picturesque  small 
clothes  which  had  not  even  then  been  quite  abandoned, 
and  which  in  early  manhood  he  was  fond  of  wearing, 
he  must  have  made  an  imposing  figure,  and  it  is  per- 
haps easy  to  understand  how  he  was  never  at  a  loss  to 
interest  those  with  whom  he  came  in  contact,  in  his 
various  plans  and  enterprises,  or  how  he  was  able  to 
hold  the  attention  of  large  classes  of  pupils. 

He  was  a  good  and  ready  speaker,  and  never  hesi- 
tated to  ' '  take  the  stump ' '  in  behalf  of  any  of  his 
projects.  Indefatigable  himself,  seemingly  tireless, 


M.    T.    P.    OOUI.D    IN    I.ATKK    I,IKE 

(From  a  crayon  portniit 


32        Marcus  T.  C.  Gould. 

and,  like  Napoleon,  requiring  but  a  few  hours'  sleep, 
he  urged  his  associates  on  to  greater  activities  by  tongue, 
pen,  and  example,  and  was  a  true  prototype  of  that 
restless  hustling  Americanism  which  seems  bound  to 
dominate  the  world. 

In  1835  or  earlier  Gould  seems  to  have  taken  up  a 
new  role — that  of  land  ' '  boomer ' '  or  real  estate  pro- 
moter, and  he  seems  to  have  gone  into  this  new  line  of 
business  with  the  same  energy  which  he  displayed  in 
every  other  enterprise  in  which  he  embarkt. 

In  the  extreme  western  part  of  Pennsylvania,  about 
thirty  miles  northwest  of  Pittsburg,  at  the  junction  of 
the  Beaver  and  Ohio  rivers,  is  the  town  of  Beaver, 
county  seat  of  Beaver  county,  with  a  population  of  two 
thousand,  more  or  less.  A  few  miles  up  Beaver  river 
is  the  thriving  little  city  of  Beaver  Falls,  with  rising 
ten  thousand  inhabitants.  Scattered  between  and 
around  them  are  the  little  villages  of  Brighton,  Roches- 
ter, New  Brighton,  Fallston,  Bridgewater,  Freedom, 
and  others.  Here,  if  Gould's  prophetic  visions  had 
been  well  founded,  there  should  be  to-day,  instead  of 
these  straggling  country  towns  and  villages,  one  grand 
homogeneous  manufacturing  metropolis,  vast  in  area, 
population,  industry,  and  wealth,  a  united  whole  under 
the  euphonious  and  appropriate  name  of  Beaver  City. 
For  thus  ran  his  bright  dreams  of  the  future.  Here,  in 
a  region  blest  by  nature  with  mineral  richness  (as  he 
thought)  almost  beyond  belief,  with  an  immense  and 
continuous  natural  waterpower,  capable  of  almost  un- 
limited artificial  extension,  with  no  less  than  eight  rail- 
roads and  two  canals  (all  then  on  paper)  eager  to  make 
the  coming  city  their  center  and  meeting  place ;  with 
every  facility  for  the  economical  production  of  all  kinds 
of  manufactures,  the  ardent  fancy  of  our  whilom  teacher, 
reporter,  author  and  inventor  painted  a  glowing  picture 
of  a  city  rising  Aladdin-like,  populous,  wealthy  and 


Marcus  T.  C.  Gould.        33 

beautiful,  to  enrich  its  projectors  and  hand  their  names 
down  to  posterity  as  the  farseeing  founders  of  Beaver 
City  the  great. 

But  alas,  all  that  remains  of  these  beautiful  dreams  is 
this  cluster  of  towns  and  hamlets,  some  of  them  some- 
what increast  in  population,  others  barely  holding  their 
own,  certainly  as  an  aggregate  no  more  than  keeping  up 
with  the  average  growth  of  similar  American  communi- 
ties in  the  same  period  ;  and  if  it  were  not  for  a  curious 
old  pamphlet  of  thirty  pages,  and  yellow  paper  cover, 
of  which  a  few  copies  fortunately  still  survive,  this  in- 
teresting phase  of  Gould's  career  might  have  past  en- 
tirely unnoticed. 

This  pamphlet  was  issued  by  Gould  as  the  agent  of 
the  exploiters  of  "Beaver  City,"  in  1836.  It  is  an 
octavo  pamphlet,  bearing  the  simple  title  "Beaver 
City,"  and  on  the  cover  is  a  rough  woodcut  map  show- 
ing the  location  of  the  "  city  "  as  before  stated,  at  the 
conflux  of  a  network  of  rivers,  canals  and  railroads,  all 
but  the  rivers  being  apparently  in  futuro.  The  pam- 
phlet also  contains  a  map  finely  engraved  on  copper, 
illustrating  the  topography  in  detail. 

This  pamphlet  describes  the  proposed  Beaver  City, 
which  was  to  be  "a  general  term  for  a  community  of 
small  villages  or  towns,  clustering  round  the  mouth  and 
falls  of  Beaver  River,  like  so  many  wards  of  a  great 
city ;  viz. ;  Brighton,  New  Brighton,  Fallston,  Sharon, 
Bolesville,  Beavertown,  Bridgewater,  East  Bridgewater, 
Fairport,  Freedom,  Philipsburg,  etc." 

After  setting  forth  their  unrivaled  advantages  of 
water-power,  coal  mines,  etc.,  and  the  fact  that  eight 
railroads  and  canals  are  to  find  here  a  common  center, 
he  states  that  the  proposed  city  already  has  a  population 
of  nearly  six  thousand  enterprising  inhabitants.  He 
then  mentions  numerous  inquiries  he  has  received  from 
New  England,  New  York,  Philadelphia,  Baltimore, 


34       Marcus  T.  C.  Gould. 

Virginia,  North  Carolina,  Western  New  York  and  Ohio, 
and  says : 

"  Now,  after  wasting  reams  of  paper,  in  my  best 
endeavors  to  appease  the  cravings  of  a  hungry  com- 
munity by  letter  writing,  till  I  have  grown  gray  in  the 
service,  I  have  at  last  determined  to  sum  up  the  whole 
matter,  in  the  following  pages  and  sell  it  to  anybody 
who  is  willing  to  buy  and  pay  for  it,  whether  they 
read  it  or  not ;  for  of  writing  letters  there  is  no  end, 
except  this  be  so  called. 

"  M.  T.  C.  Gould,  of  Beaver  City." 
"Philadelphia,  Nov.  1836." 

The  pamphlet  contains  five  letters  headed,  Letters 
from  Marcus  T.  C.  Gould,  New  Brighton,  Beaver 
County,  Pennsylvania,  to  Samuel  C.  Atkinson,  the  first 
being  dated  New  Brighton,  September,  1835,  the  next 
three  without  date,  and  the  last  one  dated  New 
Brighton,  September  28,  1835,  and  addrest  to  S.  C. 
Atkinson,  Esq.,  Philadelphia.  These  letters  are  ex- 
tremely interesting  both  as  showing  Mr.  Gould's 
powers  of  description  and  as  carrying  us  back  to  the 
days  before  the  age  of  electricity,  when  even  the  rail- 
road was  a  new  factor  in  human  progress,  and  methods 
of  communication  and  of  doing  business  generally  were 
crude  and  cumbersome  as  compared  with  the  extraor- 
dinary facilities  of  to-day. 

I  have  space  for  only  a  few  selections  from  these 
letters,  but  can  assure  my  hearers  that  the  remaining 
portions  were  of  the  same  tenor. 

We  are  here  placed  at  an  elevation  of  some  seven  hundred 
feet  above  the  level  of  the  ocean,  and  from  fifty  to  one  hun- 
dred miles  west  of  the  Allegheny  mountains — those  mighty 
purifiers  of  the  United  States  atmosphere,  whose  summits 
look  down  upon  the  great  lakes  of  the  north-west,  the  St. 
Lawrence  of  the  north-east,  the  Delaware,  the  Chesapeake 
and  the  Atlantic  in  the  east,  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  south,  and 
the  Rocky  Mountains  west.  To  those  at  all  conversant  with 


Alphabet  and  Common  \Vords 


* 


3 


Vi 


^ 


c 


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Kvrfy 

f/ 


/f 


JC 


64 


X  f 

/mty  <rsut, 

/? XVT'X*/^.   fo >5</^ 'sj '/yw    /~y 
-^tc^C'CX^  / t-Cs / eis L/s  f    jCs 
/  / 


ALPHABET  AND  SIGNS  OF  GOULD*  S  SYSTEM. 
From  copy  of  second  edition  in  library  of  Jerome  B.  Howard. 


36        Marcus  T.  C.  Gould. 

the  formation  and  diurnal  motion  of  our  earth,  and  the  atmos- 
phere which  surrounds  it — together  with  the  circumstances 
and  causes  which  render  it  more  or  less  congenial  or  deleteri- 
ous to  human  life,  it  is  needless  to  offer  arguments  showing 
that  this  is  a  healthy  region.  I  will  add,  however,  that  so 
long  as  the  earth  continues  to  revolve  from  west  to  east,  so 
long  shall  we  continue  to  enjoy  on  the  western  slope  of  the 
Allegheny  mountains,  and  across  this  entire  section  of 
country,  a  never-failing  supply  of  the  purest  mountain  air  ; 
and  while  thus  circumstanced,  we  must  be  comparatively  ex- 
empt from  the  unhappy  influence  of  those  predisposing 
causes,  which  make  such  havoc  of  human  life,  in  the  lower 
regions  of  the  Mississippi  Valley, — and  even  in  our  own  lati- 
tude, at  a  greater  distance  from  the  mountains  and  great 
lakes. 

In  the  latitude  of  about  40  deg.  30  m.  we  are  neither  chilled 
by  the  rigour  of  our  inland  oceans,  nor  suffocated  by  the 
relatively  nonelastic  vapours  which  serve  as  atmosphere,  in 
the  more  southern,  and  less  elevated  portions  of  our  Great 
Valley.  Nor  is  it  a  fact,  that  being  at  a  considerable  remove 
from  the  seaboard,  and  from  the  immediate  vicinity  of  At- 
lantic, European,  and  tropical  productions,  of  nature  and  of 
art,  we  are  consequently  deprived  of  the  necessaries  and 
luxuries  of  life  ;  on  the  contrary  we  are  surrounded  on  every 
hand  by  rivers,  canals,  rail-roads,  turnpikes  and  other 
avenues,  through  which  every  species  of  traffic  may  be 
carried  on  with  all  and  every  portion  of  our  own  widely  ex- 
tended empire,  and  with  the  world  at  large. 

Having  happily  disposed  of  my  details,  at  wholesale,  in 
the  above  parenthesis,  you  will  permit  me  further  to  say,  that 
we  live  in  a  delightfully  diversified,  and  highly  picturesque 
region  (from  which,  by  the  by,  you  must  get  some  sketches 
for  your  Casket,  &c.,)  abounding  in  living  springs,  and  lively 
streams  which  course  their  rapid  way  in  almost  every  direc- 
tion, to  irrigate  and  fertilize  their  already  prolific  borders, 
and  render  them  more  desirable  for  the  residence  of  country 
citizens  and  city  countrymen,  like  yourself  and  myself. 
These  numerous  little  streams,  or  pigmy  rivers,  uniting  their 
forces  under  various  appellations,  a  few  of  which  we  have 
enumerated,  assume  the  general  cognomen  of  Big  Beaver, 
the  identity  of  which  is,  at  the  end  of  twenty-four  miles 
swallowed  up,  at  a  single  breakfast  spell,  by  the  infant  Ohio, 
just  commencing  its  course  of  a  thousand  miles,  to  drink  its 
hundred  rivers,  and  be  itself  swallowed  down,  by  the  still 
more  thirsty  and  capacious  Mississippi,  in  its  giant  course  to 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico  and  the  Atlantic. 


Marcus  T.  C.  Gould.        37 

I  have  been  frequently  interrogated  by  my  neighbours, 
respecting  the  probable  object  of  yourself  and  others  from  the 
east,  who  have  recently  purchased  property  in  this  place. 
To  these  inquiries  I  was  not  prepared  to  give  a  very  satis- 
factory answer;  though  I  venture  to  hazard  the  opinion,  and 
I  now  repeat  it— that  Rolling  Mills,  Foundries,  &c.  &c.  will 
soon  be  establisht  near  the  head  of  the  Falls — that  Woollen 
Factories  will  probably  come  next  in  order ;  and  that  addi- 
tional Paper  Mills,  Cotton  Factories  and  Flouring  Mills  will 
soon  have  a  place  within  the  sound  of  Beaver  Falls. 

But  for  the  sake  of  variety,  permit  me  to  say,  I  have  just 
heard,  that  what  I  predicted  some  seven  years  ago,  respect- 
ing the  ploughing  of  our  western  prairies  by  locomotive  en- 
gines, instead  of  eight  and  ten  cattle  teams,  is  already  veri- 
fied— that  engines  have  been  constructed  in  Pittsburg  and 
sent  on  for  that  particular  object,  and  there  remains  but 
little  doubt  of  entire  success.  This  opens  a  new  era  in  the 
department  of  agriculture ;  and  now,  while  I  think  of  it — 
though  you  may  be  at  a  loss  to  discover  a  very  intimate  con- 
nection of  subjects,  I  will  mention,  by  way  of  showing  the 
various  shifts  to  which  yankee  ingenuity  and  -wooden  enter- 
prise are  sometimes  put,  in  the  back  -woods,  as  you  good  city 
folks  describe  our  -whereabouts — that  a  very  few  weeks  after 
the  first  twenty-four  miles  of  our  Beaver  Canal  was  com- 
pleted, an  adventure  of  some  hundred  and  twenty  or  thirty 
tons  of  hay  was  started  from  the  neighbourhood  of  Newcastle 
for  the  New  Orleans  market,  a  distance  of  two  thousand 
miles  inland !  It  cost  about  four  dollars  a  ton,  and  sold  for 
about  forty  dollars!  Several  thousand  bushels  of  potatoes 
were  soon  sent  from  Beaver  county,  from  seven  hundred  to 
two  thousand  miles  down  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi,  and  sold 
for  about  one  dollar  and  a  half  per  bushel,  having  cost  but 
about  thirty  cents  from  the  farmer.  And  it  is  now  almost 
three  years,  since  I  was  informed,  that  not  less  than  eight 
hundred  tons  of  cheese  had  been  shipt  in  a  single  season 
from  the  mouth  of  Beaver,  although  that  was  before  the  com- 
pletion of  our  canal.  I  was  at  the  same  time  informed,  that 
there  are  single  townships  in  Ohio,  not  a  hundred  miles  from 
us,  and  directly  on  the  line  of  our  Mahoning  canal,  which 
townships,  though  but  five  or  six  miles  square,  can  turn  out 
annually  two  hundred  tons  of  cheese  !  Now  in  the  midst  of 
such  a  country,  with  such  inhabitants,  such  enterprise,  such 
resources  and  facilities,  what  can  -we  not  do — indeed,  what 
shall  we  not  do,  that  is  honourable  and  fair,  among  our 
fellow  citizens?  I  cannot  stay  to  answer  you  at  this  time. 
Yours,  &c. 


38        Marcus  T.  C.  Gould. 

Again — since  the  recent  visits  of  some  of  your  eagle-eyed, 
jealous,  and  decisive  New  York  neighbours  to  our  place,  I 
shall  not  be  much  surprised,  if,  after  all  that  has  been  done 
and  said,  by  a  few  of  your  enlightened  citizens,  your  board 
of  Trade,  and  your  capitalists,  toward  the  construction  of  the 
Mahoning  Canal,  to  connect  the  great  state  improvements 
of  Pennsylvania  and  Ohio — the  money  loving,  but  tardy,  and 
over  cautious  citizens  of  Philadelphia,  should  allow  the 
golden  moments  to  pass,  until  every  thing  worth  possessing, 
at  the  Falls  of  Beaver,  and  along  the  line  of  the  Mahoning 
Canal,  shall  have  been  secured  by  New  York  capital,  and 
till  New  York  capitalists  shall  have  entrencht  themselves 
within  the  very  center  of  our  western  granaries,  and  say  to 
the  people  of  Pennsylvania,  we  have  had  our  Little  Falls 
upon  the  Mohawk,  our  Rochester  upon  the  Genesee,  our 
Massillon  upon  the  Tuscarawas,  and  we  now  have  the  Falls 
of  Beaver,  from  which,  and  to  which,  we  shall  soon  have 
every  desirable  facility,  through  every  point  of  the  compass. 
We  will  make  it  our  great  western  distributing  office,  for  flour, 
&c.  &c.  &c.  We  have  long  had  the  Lock ;  but  we  have  now 
obtained  the  mafic  Key,  which  alone  secures  our  treasures. 
Let  Pennsylvania  no  more  boast  of  being  the  Key  State,  since 
she  has  allowed  this  last,  this  tnosi  important  Lock,  to  be  to 
her  hermetically  sealed,  by capital  from  Gotham.  I  say  again, 
we  shall  not  be  surprised,  if,  before  you  and  your  rich  neigh- 
bours of  brotherly  love  shall  have  made  up  your  minds  to  take 
the  key  of  western  Pennsylvania  into  your  own  hands,  when 
offered  to  you,  others  should  step  in,  and  the  doors  be  closed 
against  you. 

Mr.  Gould  continues,  "  Soon  after  the  publication  of 
the  foregoing  letters  the  writer  visited  Philadelphia  for 
the  purpose  of  forming  an  association  for  the  culture  of 
the  mulberry  and  manufacturing  of  silk."  Then 
followed  the  preamble  and  articles  of  association  of  the 
"  Beaver  Silk  Culture  and  Manufacturing  Company  of 
Pennsylvania,"  which  set  forth  that  the  company  was 
to  have  a  capital  stock  of  fifty  thousand  dollars  in  shares 
of  fifty  dollars  each.  The  president  was  Samuel  C. 
Atkinson,  the  acting  manager  was  Marcus  T.  C.  Gould, 
and  among  the  directors  was  Jesper  Harding,  who  had 
been  at  times  Mr.  Gould's  publisher.  On  the  I2th  of 
January,  1836,  they  obtained  from  the  governor  of  the 


Marcus  T.  C.  Gould.        39 

state  a  charter  which  increast  the  capital  stock  from 
fifty  thousand  dollars  to  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  ; 
having  previously  made  purchases  of  "  property  near 
the  mouth  and  falls  of  Beaver  to  the  amount  of  sixty  or 
seventy  thousand  dollars,  to  which  they  have  since  made 
some  valuable  additions." 

The  pamphlet  contains  a  copy  of  the  charter  granted 
to  the  company  under  the  authority  of  Joseph  Ritner, 
governor  of  the  Commonwealth  of  Pennsylvania,  and 
relates  that  already  they  had  growing  not  less  than  forty 
thousand  Italian  mulberry  trees.  The  remainder  of  the 
pamphlet  describes  in  detail  the  manifold  advantages  to 
capitalists  afforded  by  Beaver  City  as  an  opportunity 
for  safe  and  wise  investments. 

There  were  many  Quakers  in  this  vicinity,  and  it  is 
probable  that  when  interest  slackened  in  the  Hicksite 
secession  and  consequently  Gould' s  career  as  a  publisher 
of  Friends'  publications  came  to  an  end,  causing,  to- 
gether with  actions  of  associates  in  whom  he  had  rested 
implicit  but  misplaced  confidence,  the  failure  of  his 
publishing  enterprises,  he  was  led  by  his  friendship 
with  members  of  this  most  admirable  sect,  to  take  up 
his  abode  in  New  Brighton,  probably  in  the  early  part 
of  1833.  Here  he  started  a  school,  which  seems  to 
have  been  in  the  nature  of  an  academy  or  seminary,  and 
met  with  considerable  success,  but  his  ambitious  spirit 
was  not  satisfied  with  small  things,  and  he  assumed 
what  in  those  days  of  cautious  business  dealings  and 
small  ventures,  must  have  been  the  enormous  responsi- 
bilities, and  extensive  and  burdensome  duties,  entailed 
by  an  almost  single-handed  attempt  to  draw  the  atten- 
tion and  capital  of  the  whole  country  to  Beaver  City. 

Even  in  the  midst  of  Gould's  real  estate  activities  he 
found  time  to  return  occasionally  to  his  loved  profession, 
for  we  find  him  in  1836  and  also  in  1838  reporting  in 


40        Marcus  T.  C.  Gould. 

the  Pennsylvania  Legislature  at  Harrisburg,  as  shown 
by  printed  reports  from  his  shorthand  notes  taken  at  the 
time. 

One  such  report  in  my  possession  is  entitled  ' '  Speech 
|  of  |  Thaddeus  Stevens,  Esq.  |  in  favor  of  the  bill  to 
establish  |  A  School  of  Arts  |  in  the  city  of  Philadel- 
phia, and  to  endow  the  |  colleges  and  academies  of 
Pennsylvania.  |  Delivered  in  the  house  of  representa- 
tives at  Harrisburg,  |  March  loth,  1838.  |  Reported  in 
Short  Hand  |  by  |  M.  T.  C.  Gould.  |  Harrisburg :  | 
Printed  by  Theophilus  Fenn.  |  1838."  This  is  a  pam- 
phlet of  twelve  pages,  containing  a  speech  characteristic 
of  the  great  orator  who  delivered  it,  full  of  fervid  rhet- 
oric and  abounding  in  classical  allusions  and  erudite  ex- 
pressions which  were  well  calculated  to  test  the  accu- 
racy and  intelligence  of  the  reporter. 

How  long  Gould  pursued  the  phantasmal  dream 
of  wealth  to  come  from  countless  wheels  turned  by 
the  falls  of  Beaver,  is  not  quite  clear.  Probably  the 
"boom"  was  not  of  long  duration,  although  he  probably 
never  gave  up  his  faith  in  the  ultimate  great  prosperity 
of  Beaver  City.  He  continued  to  live  in  the  vicinity  of 
the  Falls  of  Beaver  except  for  occasional  absences,  until 
his  death,  and  was  one  of  the  principal  founders  of  the 
town  of  Rochester,  which  he  firmly  believed  would 
eventually  rival  its  great  namesake,  and  there  he  died 
October  19,  1860,  universally  esteemed  by  his  fellow 
citizens,  and  recognized  as  not  only  the  man  who  had 
done  more  than  any  other  in  building  up  that  section, 
but  also  without  doubt  the  most  remarkable  man  men- 
tally who  had  lived  there. 

It  seems  certain  that  the  unnatural  impetus  caused  by 
Mr.  Gould' s  energetic  methods  of  advertising  gave  place 
in  a  few  years  to  a  steady  and  less  unhealthy  growth, 
and  that  Mr.  Gould,  finding  himself  in  financial  straits 
by  reason  of  obligations  incurred  on  the  strength  of  the 


MR  GOULD  will  commence  a  course  of  Ste- 
nographic Instruction,  in  the  city  of  Phila- 
delphia, this  evening,  at  7  o'clock.  The  course  will 
consist  of  ten  practical  lessons  of  an  hour  each;  and 
terminate  with  the  present  month. 

Persons  who  wish  to  profit  by  Mr.  G.'s  instruc- 
tion, will  do  well  to  improve  the  present  opportu- 
nity, as  he  has  engagements  at  New  York,  and  at 
most  of  the  northern  and  eastern  colleges,  which 
will  occupy  his  time  till  spring.  Call  on  Mr.  G.,  at 
his  residence,  No.  6,  North  Eighth-street. 

nov  13...d3t 


FACSIMILE  OF  EARLY  ADVERTISEMENT. 
In  collection  of  M.  F.  Lobo,  Philadelphia. 


42        Marcus  T.  C.  Gould. 

promist  support  of  others,  which  did  not  materialize, 
was  obliged  again  to  turn  to  his  trusty  pen  for  a  liveli- 
hood. At  all  events,  about  1840  we  find  him  in  Wash- 
ington, publishing  Gould's  Stenographic  Reporter, 
which  was  not,  as  might  be  inferred  from  its  title,  a 
shorthand  magazine,  but  merely  the  publication  in 
periodical  form  of  his  reports  of  famous  trials.  At  this 
time  he  appears  to  have  been  again  actively  engaged  in 
teaching  and  reporting,  and  he  remained  in  Washington 
and  continued  the  publication  of  this  work  for  a  year  at 
least,  as  I  have  Volume  II,  for  1841,  containing  the 
famous  trial  of  Alexander  McLeod,  for  murder,  reported 
by  Gould. 

In  1842  and  the  early  part  of  1843  he  was  located  in 
Cincinnati,  where  he  engaged  in  teaching  shorthand  and 
in  looking  after  the  manufacture  of  his  common  place 
books  and  other  specially  devised  blank  books,  and  his 
ingenious  graduated  pigeon-hole  cases,  an  invention  de- 
serving a  full  description,  which  lack  of  time  forbids. 
In  a  letter  to  his  son-in-law,  Harrison  Mendenhall,  un- 
der date  of  January  I,  1843,  which  I  would  like  to 
quote  entire,  as  it  is  full  of  interesting  sidelights  upon 
the  character  and  personality  of  the  writer,  he  says : 

I  went  to  Dayton  and  back  at  an  expense  of  $5.  I  had  the 
speech  of  Clay,  but  no  money  with  which  to  publish  it.  It 
could  not  be  done  at  Dayton,  at  any  rate,  because  they  do 
not  make  books  there — in  Cincinnati  I  could  not  get  it  done, 
except  by  some  of  the  papers,  in  which  way  it  would  not  half 
pay  me  for  my  trouble  and  expense.  It  would  cost  about  $25 
to  set  up  the  type,  and  if  I  had  had  money  to  buy  paper,  the 
printers  would  have  willingly  done  the  printing,  but  I  had 
not,  and  no  body  would  sell  it  on  credit — again,  not  knowing 
anything  about  what  quantity  to  print — more  paper  might 
have  been  bought  and  printed  than  could  be  sold — or  if  I  had 
workt  a  small  quantity  there  would  have  been  no  profit  at  all, 
and  as  the  types  have  to  be  thrown  down  every  eight  pages 
that  is  printed,  even  if  there  had  been  a  demand  for  thousands 
more  they  could  not  be  furnisht  till  the  types  were  again  set 
up,  at  an  expense  of  another  25  dollars.  In  the  meantime  the 
Election  came  on,  ruining,  as  was  supposed,  the  prospects  of 


M.  T.  c.  GOULD'S  MAP  OF  BEAVEK  CITY  AND  ENVIKONS,  AS  PLANNED 


44        Marcus  T.  C.  Gould. 

Mr.  Clay  forever.  Under  all  these  discouragements,  Mr. 
James  made  an  offer,  that  he  would  stereotype  the  speech — 
.  that  he  would  find  paper  and  print  it,  provided  that  all  the 
money  was  his  till  he  was  fully  paid— -this  being  the  best  and 
only  offer  that  I  could  get,  I  complyed — supposing  that  he 
would  be  paid  in  a  week — that  the  plates  would  then  be  mine, 
that  I  could  send  the  plates  to  Pittsburg,  New  York,  Boston, 
or  anywhere  else  and  work  off  the  speeches  wherever  they 
could  be  sold.  They  would  cost  but  about  2  cents  each,  and 
could  be  sold  from  5  to  12}^  for  cash  or  barter  them  to  travel- 
ling agents,  merchants,  Booksellers,  &c.  &c.  All  this  was 
well  enough — and  the  speech  can  now  be  sold,  in  almost  any 
part  of  the  United  States,  &  two  or  three  hundred  per  cent, 
profit  made  upon  all  that  are  manufactured  from  this  time  for- 
ward ;  but  while  I  am  shut  up  in  a  schoolroom,  in  Cincinnati, 
teaching  short  hand,  to  pay  my  expenses  for  the  last  six 
months  it  is  impossible  that  I  should  attend  to  the  interests  of 
that  speech.  Although  it  has  now,  and  will  continue  to  have 
an  interest  for  two  years  to  come — and  Clay,  if  he  lives,  will 
be  our  President,  and  if  1  live,  he  will  remember  me,  or  mine,  if 
I  ask  it.  I  am  therefore  rejoiced  that  I  took  his  speech,  that 
I  followed  him  to  Madison — that  the  speech  is  sanctioned  by 
himself,  that  it  is  stereotyped  and  will  go  down  to  posterity 
as  it  ought — doing  credit  to  him  and  myself,  and  affording  a 
beautiful  reward  to  me  if  I  can  attend  to  it,  or  to  some  one 
who  will  attend  to  it.  The  labor,  the  expense,  the  fatigue, 
the  anxiety,  the  risque  are  all  over,  and  if  I  have  not  yet 
made  much  by  it  I  am  not  in  debt  for  it,  and  it  may  have  laid 
the  foundation,  not  only  of  profit  but  of  honor. 

This  son-in-law,  by  the  way,  was  an  expert  writer  of 
his  system,  and  he  closes  by  saying,  ' '  Do  n'  t  fail  to 
write  me  fully,  and  in  short  hand,  that  you  may  say  a 
great  deal." 

I  am  fortunate  in  possessing  a  copy  of  this  very  speech 
as  publisht  by  Mr.  Gould.  It  is  a  pamphlet  of  twenty- 
four  pages,  with  the  title,  "Speech  |  of  |  Henry  Clay,  | 
at  |  Dayton,  Ohio,  September  29,  1842.  |  As  reported 
by  |  Marcus  T.  C.  Gould,  |  Stenographer.  |  Cincinnati: 
|  Publisht  by  the  Proprietor.  |  1842."  It  is  also  stated, 
at  top  of  title-page,  to  be  "  Gould's  Stenographic  Re- 
porter, Vol.  Ill,  No.  I."  This  seems  to  imply  that 
he  intended  to  continue  the  publication  of  this  period- 
ical from  time  to  time ;  but  I  have  not  seen  any  issue  of 


Marcus  T.  C.  Gould.        45 

later  date.  In  a  note  the  reporter  says  the  address 
' '  was  delivered  to  a  multitude,  variously  estimated  from 
one  hundred  thousand  to  two  hundred  thousand,"  and 
that,  "  The  report  had  been  submitted  to  Mr.  Clay, 
and  he  is  satisfied  with  its  general  accuracy."  This 
was  probably  one  of  the  most  important  speeches  that 
Henry  Clay  ever  made,  and  was  intended  to  make 
public  his  views  upon  the  important  political  subjects  of 
the  day,  and  to  demonstrate  his  fitness  for  the  high 
office  of  president  of  the  United  States. 

I  cannot  forbear  from  making  one  more  quotation 
from  a  letter  of  June  26,  1844,  also  to  his  son-in-law, 
from  Cincinnati,  illustrating  as  it  does  so  well,  the  in- 
domitable energy  and  enthusiasm  of  the  man.  At  this 
time  he  was  engaged  in  the  promotion  of  real  estate 
deals,  in  Newport,  Kentucky,  and  a  bridge  between 
Newport  and  Covington  was  greatly  desired,  in  order 
to  enhance  the  value  of  the  property  of  Gould  and  his 
associates,  as  well  as  for  the  common  interest  and  con- 
venience of  both  towns.  I  quote  from  his  letter  as 
follows : 

My  attention  is  given  almost  exclusively,  at  present,  to 
stirring  up  the  people  of  the  two  towns,  Covington  and  New- 
port, with  reference  to  a  wire  bridge  across  the  Licking.  We 
know  it  will  double  the  value  of  our  property  ;  and  there  is  a 
fair  prospect  of  success.  I  have  assumed  the  entire  responsi- 
bility of  managing  the  whole  affair  on  the  Newport  side. 
For  they  are  all  drones ;  and  none  will  move,  except  as  they 
are  moved.  I  am,  myself,  a  self-constituted  committee  of 
nineteen  to  devise  ways  and  means,  to  call  meetings,  make 
stump  speeches,  write  essays  and  advertisements,  and  pub- 
lish them  at  my  own  expense,  and  then  distribute  them  among 
the  people,  &c  When  a  meeting  cannot  be  got  up  in  any 
other  way,  I  go  round  on  my  own  legs,  and  tell  every  man  in 
the  town,  with  my  own  mouth,  that  he  must  come  to  the 
meeting — that  /am  expected  to  speak,  &c. 

In  this  way,  and  perhaps  in  no  other,  is  there  a  prospect  of 
accomplishing  the  object.  I  find  some  very  warm-hearted 
Professors,  whose  zeal  will  probably  extend  so  far,  that  they 
will  do  nothing  to  oppose  me,  &c. 

It  is  truly  refreshing,  when  a  man  has  an  important  object 


46        Marcus  T.  C.  Gould. 

in  view,  to  even  be  told,  by  men  of  wealth  and  influence  that 


in  view,  to  even  De  tola,  Dy  men  ot  wealtn  ana  influence  tn 
they  will  not  throw  snuff,  nor  lime,  nor  Cayenne  pepper,  n 
coarse  gravel  in  his  eyes;  because,  if  he  is  a  man  of  re 


to  take  stock — and  of  which  1  send  a  copy. 

A  splendid  suspension  wire   Bridge  can  be  made  here  for 
$20,000,  and  men  stand  ready  to  contract  for  that  sum.      The 


two  Jrienris  to  assist  me,  in  tne  matter — witn  tneir  aia,  tne 
Bridge  is  as  good  as  begun,  and  a  work  well  begun,  is  said  to 


win  QOUDUCU  uc  guuu  &IUUK.,  you  inusc  manage  to  gel  uiinc 
Bob.  [Robert  Townsend]  to  take  1000  on  account  of  wire,  and 
Chas.  Lukins  loooin  pine  lumber. 


I  send  you  the  call  of  meetings  to  take  Bridge  stock  &c., 
and  article  signed  G.  also  an  article  in  the  Times  not  signed 
G.,  and  I  send  you  for  your  amusement  or  edification,  some 
hints  to  my  associates  thrown  out  May  26 — please  keep  the 
manuscript  and  return  it,  for  I  mean  that  some  of  my  views 
shall  be  presented  in  black  and  white.  I  have  to  do  all  the 
thinking,  writing,  running,  buying,  selling,  building  Bridges, 
&c.  &  still  there  are  one  or  two  in  our  own  co.  that  do  not 
seem  to  know,  or  appreciate,  that  I  have  done  anything,  or 
am  doing  anything.  Although  they  say  our  property  is  worth 
$5  a  foot,  and  if  the  Bridge  is  built,  will  soon  be  worth  $10  a 
foot;  but  they  would  not  turn  over  a  hand  to  bring  about  any 
such  result.  I  want  to  see  you  very  much.  I  sometimes 
think  I  have  to  work  too  hard  for  others  who  will  neither 
think,  act,  or  let  me  do  so ;  but  always  hold  back,  like  a  mule 
in  harness. 

After  leaving  Newport  he  bought  a  large  place  at 
"  Esculapia  Springs,"  Kentucky,  where  he  had  some 
forty  or  fifty  buildings  and  accommodations  for  three 
hundred  people  besides  servants.  At  first  he  employed 
an  experienced  hotel  man  to  manage  it,  but  later  took 


Marcus  T.  C.  Gould.        47 

charge  himself.  Here,  after  his  long  season  of  activity 
and  unceasing  toil,  he  bade  fair  to  find  at  last  a  peace- 
ful harbor  where  he  might  obtain  the  rest  and  quiet 
which  his  weary  body  and  brain  must  have  craved. 
From  here  he  writes  to  his  family,  "Now  that  I  have 
got  into  a  quiet,  healthy  place,  is  it  to  be  wondered  at 
that  I  should  hang  on  to  Esculapia  with  the  tenacity 
and  firmness  of  purpose  characteristic  of  a  Gould,  par- 
ticularly of  a- — M.  T.  C.  Gould  ?' '  Unfortunately  the 
cholera  became  epidemic  in  Cincinnati,  and  people 
came  from  there  to  Esculapia  in  crowds,  bringing  the 
disease  with  them,  and  the  prestige  of  the  beautiful 
health  resort  was  destroyed.  Mr.  Gould,  himself,  was 
taken  with  the  dreadful  disease  while  on  his  way  home 
on  horseback,  but  by  simple  yet  powerful  remedies,, 
his  life  was  saved.  To  add  to  his  misfortunes,  a  flood 
reacht  the  quarters  where  most  of  his  household  goods 
and  personal  belongings  were  stored  in  Cincinnati,  and 
what  was  not  destroyed  was  seriously  damaged. 

After  these  unfortunate  experiences  he  seems  to  have 
settled  down  again  in  Beaver  county,  and  devoted  the 
energies  of  the  remaining  years  of  his  life  to  furthering 
the  interests  of  the  locality.  Here  he  lived  in  a  large 
brick  house,  still  standing,  at  the  junction  of  the 
Beaver  and  Ohio  Rivers,  with  the  bank  in  front  of  his 
house  sloping  abruptly  to  the  water' s  edge ;  and  here 
no  doubt  he  would  sit  and  meditate  on  the  part  he  had 
played  in  bringing  prosperity  to  Beaver,  and  dream  of 
the  towering  chimneys  and  whirring  machinery  of  a 
second  Pittsburg  which  his  thoughts  and  hopes  pictured 
as  rising  on  the  banks  of  the  stream  which  he  believed 
would  yet  be  in  fact,  "  as  busy  as  a  beaver." 

From  this  time  on  his  popularity  as  a  teacher  and  re- 
porter appears  to  have  declined.  Perhaps  the  shadow 
of  coming  events  was  already  over  him.  Across  the 
water  a  young  English  schoolmaster  was  already  inspir- 
ing his  rapidly-increasing  band  of  followers  with  some 


48       Marcus  T.  C.  Gould. 

of  his  own  fiery  zeal  for  the  new-born  Phonography 
and  its  twin  sister,  phonetic  reform,  soon  to  cross  the 
broad  ocean  and  be  propagated  with  an  enthusiasm  and 
success  such  as  even  Gould  himself  could  not  equal  or 
withstand.  A  few  scattered  reports  bearing  Gould's 
name,  appeared  from  that  time  on  to  1846.  Then 
before  the  rising  sun  of  Pitman's  phonography,  her- 
alded by  that  great  triumvirate  of  phonographic  en- 
thusiasts, Stephen  Pearl  Andrews,  Augustus  French 
Boyle,  and  Oliver  Dyer,  giants  all,  in  eloquence,  en- 
thusiasm and  untiring  energy  for  the  "  Writing  and 
Reading  Reform,"  Gould's  star  paled  and  waned  and 
disappeared.  But  who  can  say  how  far  the  wonderful 
success  of  the  early  Pitman  propagandists  in  this  country 
might  have  been  due  to  the  good  seed  sowed  by  Marcus 
Tullius  Cicero  Gould?  Truly  they  were  men  after 
Gould' s  own  heart.  And  had  Gould  been  one  of  that 
brilliant  band,  can  we  not  fancy  him  facile  princeps! 
For  after  all  they  were  only  repeating  in  a  more  en- 
lightened and  more  receptive  generation  Gould's 
triumphs  of  a  quarter  century  before.  So  when  we  yield 
homage  and  admiration  to  Andrews  the  Pantarch, 
many-sided  man  of  genius,  to  Boyle  and  Webster,  and 
Booth  and  Patterson,  his  fellow  workers,  and  to  Oliver 
Dyer,  the  Grand  Old  Man  of  American  phonographers, 
whose  splendid  eloquence  still  charms  us  on  those  rare 
occasions  when  his  patriarchal  form  is  seen,  an  honored 
guest,  at  our  convention  gatherings,  to  Parkhurst  and 
Longley,  indefatigable  workers  for  the  twin  reforms, 
and  to  Benn  Pitman,  beloved  for  himself  and  honored 
by  all  writers  of  phonography  for  his  kinship  to  his  im- 
mortal brother,  let  us  not  forget  their  worthy  predecessor, 
who  with  inferior  opportunities  and  cruder  materials, 
did  even  as  they,  and  devoted  the  best  energies  of  a  life 
full  of  earnest  effort  and  endeavor  to  the  cause  of  short- 
hand. 

Marcus  T.  C.  Gould,  hail  and  farewell ! 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

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THE  LIBRARY 
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